was not easy to understand how these two girls came to be so
intimate, for they seemed to have very little in common. Compared
with Eve Madeley, Patty was an insignificant little person; but of
her moral uprightness Hilliard felt only the more assured the longer
he talked with her, and this still had a favourable effect upon his
estimate of Eve.

Again there passed a few days without event. But about nine o'clock
on Wednesday evening, as he sat at home over a book, his landlady
entered the room with a surprising announcement.

"There's a young lady wishes to see you, Sir. Miss Ringrose is the
name."

Hilliard sprang up.

"Please ask her to come in."

The woman eyed him in a manner he was too excited to understand.

"She would like to speak to you at the door, Sir, if you wouldn't
mind going out."

He hastened thither. The front door stood open, and a light from the
passage shone on Patty's face. In the girl's look he saw at once
that something was wrong.

"Oh, Mr. Hilliard--I didn't know your number--I've been to a lot
of houses asking for you----"