He struck the table again. He was absolutely beside himself with rage.

He seemed even to find a physical difficulty in speech. Wilhelmina raised her eyebrows.

"Go on," she said coolly. "I am curious to hear the rest."

Macheson suddenly intervened. He stepped between the two.

"This has gone far enough," he said sternly. "Hurd, you are losing your head. You are saying things you will be sorry for afterwards. And I cannot allow you to speak like this to a woman--in my presence!"

"Let him go on," Wilhelmina said calmly. "I am beginning to find him interesting."

Hurd laughed fiercely.

"What!" he cried. "You want to hear of your 'Apache' lover, the man you took from the gutters of Paris into----"

Macheson struck him full across the mouth, but Wilhelmina caught at his arm. She had overestimated her courage or her strength--he was only just in time to save her from falling.

"Brute!" she muttered, and the colour fled from her cheeks like breath from a looking-gla.s.s.

Macheson laid her on the couch and rang the bell. Suddenly he realized that they were alone. From outside came the sound of wheels. He sprang up listening. Wilhelmina, too, opened her eyes. She waved him away feebly. He smiled back his comprehension.

"The servants are coming," he said. "I can hear them. I promise you that if he catches the train, I will!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: "GO ON," SHE SAID COOLLY, "I AM CURIOUS TO HEAR THE REST." Page 240]

He vaulted through the window which he had already opened. The sound of wheels had died away, but he set his face at once towards the station, running with long easy strides, and gradually increasing his pace.

Stephen Hurd, with his handkerchief to his mouth, and with all his nerves tingling with a sense of fierce excitement, looked behind him continually, but saw nothing. Long before he reached the station he had abandoned all fear of pursuit. Yet during the last half-mile Macheson was never more than a few yards from him, and on St. Pancras platform he was almost the first person he encountered.

"Macheson! By G.o.d!"

He almost dropped the coat he was carrying. He looked at Macheson as one might look at a visitor from Mars. It was not possible that this could be the man from whom he had fled. Macheson smiled at him grimly.

"How did--how did you get here?" the young man faltered.

"By the same train as you," Macheson answered. "How else? Where are you going to meet Letty?"

Hurd answered with a curse.

"Why the devil can't you mind your own business?" he demanded.

"This is my business," Macheson answered.

Then he turned abruptly round towards the hesitating figure of the girl who had suddenly paused in her swift approach.

"It is my business to take you home, Letty," he said. "I have come to fetch you!"

Letty looked appealingly towards Stephen Hurd. What she saw in his face, however, only terrified her.

"Look here," he said thickly, "I've had almost enough of this. You can go to the devil--you and Miss Thorpe-Hatton, too! I won't allow any one to meddle in my private concerns. Come along, Letty."

He would have led her away, but Macheson was not to be shaken off. He kept his place by the girl's side.

"Letty," he said, "are you married to him?"

"Not yet," she answered hesitatingly. "But we are going to be."

"Where are you going to now?"

She glanced towards Stephen.

"I am going to take her away with me," he declared sullenly, "as soon as I can get my luggage on this cab."

"Letty," Macheson said, "a few hours ago Miss Thorpe-Hatton offered Stephen Hurd a dowry for you of a thousand pounds, if he would promise to bring you back as his wife. He refused. He has not the slightest intention of making you his wife. I am sorry to have to speak so plainly, but you see we haven't much time for beating about the bush, have we? I want you to come with me to Berkeley Square. Mrs. Brown will look after you."

She turned towards the young man piteously.

"Stephen," she said, "tell Mr. Macheson that he is mistaken. We are going to be married, aren't we?"

"Yes," he answered. "At least I always meant to marry you. What I shall do if every one starts bullying me I'm sure I don't know. Cut the whole lot of you, I think, and be off to the Colonies."

"You don't mean that, Stephen," she begged.

He pointed to the cab laden now with his luggage.

"Will you get in or won't you, Letty?" he asked.

She shrank back.

"Stephen," she said, "I thought that you were going to bring mother up with you."

He laughed hardly.

"Your mother wasn't ready," he said. "We can send for her later."

"Don't you think, Stephen," she pleaded, "that it would be nice for me to stay with Mrs. Brown until--until we are married?"

"If you go to Mrs. Brown," he said gruffly, "you can stay with her.

That's all! I won't be fooled about any longer. Once and for all, are you coming?"

She took a hesitating step forward, but Macheson led her firmly towards another hansom.

"No!" he answered, "she is not. You know where she will be when you have the marriage license."

Stephen sprang into his cab with an oath. Even then Letty would have followed him, but Macheson held her arm.

"You stay here, Letty," he said firmly.

She covered her face with her hands, but she obeyed.