They had come to the door; he went inside; she took his face between
her hands, left one kiss on his forehead, led him back to the doorway
and he heard the bolts drawn. When he recovered himself he went to
the 'Crown and Sceptre' and tried to write a letter to her, but the
words looked hateful, horrible on the paper, and they were not the
words he wanted. He dared not go near the house the next morning,
but as he passed it on the coach he looked at the windows. Nobody
was to be seen, and that night he left England.

'Did you hear,' said Clara to her mother at breakfast, 'that the
lightning struck one of the elms in the avenue at Mrs Martin's
yesterday evening and splintered it to the ground?'



CHAPTER X



In a few days Madge received the following letter:-


'FRANKFORT, O. M.,
HOTEL WAIDENBUSCH.

'My dearest Madge,--I do not know how to write to you. I have begun
a dozen letters but I cannot bring myself to speak of what lies
before me, hiding the whole world from me. Forgiveness! how is any
forgiveness possible? But Madge, my dearest Madge, remember that my
love is intenser than ever. What has happened has bound you closer