“But why?” he asked.

“Because she doesn’t see with my eyes, Harry.  We need not say anything more about it at present.  It is so; and therefore I am to go to Brussels.  You have made this opportunity for yourself before I start.  Perhaps I have been foolish to be taken off my guard.”

“Don’t say that, Florence.”

“I shall think so, unless you can be discreet.  Harry, you will have to wait.  You will remember that we must wait; but I shall not change.”

“Nor I,—­nor I.”

“I think not, because I trust you.  Here is mamma, and now I must leave you.  But I shall tell mamma everything before I go to bed.”  Then Mrs. Mountjoy came up and took Florence away, with a few words of most disdainful greeting to Harry Annesley.

When Florence was gone Harry felt that as the sun and the moon and the stars had all set, and as absolute darkness reigned through the rooms, he might as well escape into the street, where there was no one but the police to watch him, as he threw his hat up into the air in his exultation.  But before he did so he had to pass by Mrs. Armitage and thank her for all her kindness; for he was aware how much she had done for him in his present circumstances.  “Oh, Mrs. Armitage, I am so obliged to you! no fellow was ever so obliged to a friend before.”

“How has it gone off?  For Mrs. Mountjoy has taken Florence home.”

“Oh yes, she has taken her away.  But she hasn’t shut the stable-door till the steed has been stolen.”

“Oh, the steed has been stolen?”

“Yes, I think so; I do think so.”

“And that poor man who has disappeared is nowhere.”

“Men who disappear never are anywhere.  But I do flatter myself that if he had held his ground and kept his property the result would have been the same.”

“I dare say.”

“Don’t suppose, Mrs. Armitage, that I am taking any pride to myself.  Why on earth Florence should have taken a fancy to such a fellow as I am I cannot imagine.”

“Oh no; not in the least.”

“It’s all very well for you to laugh, Mrs. Armitage, but as I have thought of it all I have sometimes been in despair.”

“But now you are not in despair.”

“No, indeed; just now I am triumphant.  I have thought so often that I was a fool to love her, because everything was so much against me.”

“I have wondered that you continued.  It always seemed to me that there wasn’t a ghost of a chance for you.  Mr. Armitage bade me give it all up, because he was sure you would never do any good.”

“I don’t care how much you laugh at me, Mrs. Armitage.”

“Let those laugh who win.”  Then he rushed out into the Paragon, and absolutely did throw his hat up in the air in his triumph.

CHAPTER XIII.

Mrs. Mountjoy’s anger.