"Go!" cried Dahlia.

The window was instantly shut.

The vibration of Dahlia's voice went through Rhoda like the heavy shaking
of the bell after it had struck, and the room seemed to spin and hum. It
was to her but another minute before her sister slid softly into the bed,
and they were locked together.




CHAPTER VI

Boyne's bank was of the order of those old and firmly fixed
establishments which have taken root with the fortunes of the country--
are honourable as England's name, solid as her prosperity, and even as
the flourishing green tree to shareholders: a granite house. Boyne
himself had been disembodied for more than a century: Burt and Hamble
were still of the flesh; but a greater than Burt or Hamble was Blancove-
-the Sir William Blancove, Baronet, of city feasts and charities, who,
besides being a wealthy merchant, possessed of a very acute head for
banking, was a scholarly gentleman, worthy of riches. His brother was
Squire Blancove, of Wrexby; but between these two close relatives there
existed no stronger feeling than what was expressed by open contempt of a
mind dedicated to business on the one side, and quiet contempt of a life
devoted to indolence on the other. Nevertheless, Squire Blancove, though
everybody knew how deeply he despised his junior for his city-gained
title and commercial occupation, sent him his son Algernon, to get the