“‘You mean to act like a cad?’ I heard the girl say.

“‘I mean to act,’ he retorted, ’like a sensible man who has a fair advantage and means, in spite of your caprice, to keep it.’

“‘Fair?’ the girl echoed in scorn.

“‘Yes, fair,’ Henshaw insisted with some heat.  ’I saved you from a scandal that would have ruined you, and it was natural I should ask my reward.  But your notions of gratitude, which had led me on to love you, soon evaporated; but I am not so easily dismissed.’

“‘You mean to continue your cowardly persecution?’ There was a tremor in the girl’s voice that made me long to get at the man.

“‘I mean to marry you,’ he retorted.  ‘Or at least—­’

“‘Don’t touch me!’ she said hoarsely as he approached her.

“‘You are coming away with me to-night,’ he insisted.  ’You need not pretend to be horrified.  It won’t be your first nocturnal adventure, and I have waited quite long enough.’

“He had driven her to the other corner on the window side of the room.  As I leaned forward ready to fasten on the man when he should offer violence I heard a peculiar sound as of a loose piece of wood or iron striking the sill.

“‘Keep away!’ the girl said in a hoarse whisper.  ’If you drive me to desperation I swear I will kill you.’

“There followed a vicious laugh from Henshaw and I could tell from the panting which followed that a struggle was going on.  Just then the moon came out and I could see that Henshaw was trying to get some object—­a weapon, I guessed—­away from the girl.  It is a wonder that neither of them saw me.  In the dark opening I must have still been practically hidden, and they too intent on their struggle to notice anything beyond.

“I was just on the point of springing out to the girl’s assistance when she staggered back and, turning, made a rush for the door.  In a moment Henshaw was after her, but in his blind haste he either tripped or stumbled and fell heavily.  I think it likely that in the dark he struck against the corner of the rather massive oak table in the centre of the room and was thrown off his balance.  He rose immediately, but I was now close behind him, and as he put out his arm to clutch the girl, who was then half through the doorway, I gripped him by the collar and with all my strength swung him back into the room.

“He must have been most horribly surprised, for he uttered a gasping cry as he spun round, and instead of keeping his feet and rushing at me as I expected he went down with a thud by the window.”

They had stopped in their walk now, and Edith Morriston was listening almost breathlessly to Gifford’s graphic story.  Never for a moment had he suggested the lady’s identity; for all that had passed neither of them might have known it.

“I turned quickly to the door,” Gifford continued, “but to my surprise the lady whom I expected to find there had disappeared.  I could neither see nor hear any sign of her.