“I cannot; I have to pass through my mother’s room.  She would be sure to awake.”

“Great Scott! what shall we do?  My head is whirling.  You must give your mother a sleeping potion, will you?  She drinks something before she goes to bed?”

“Yes, but——­”

“There must be no buts.  It is a case of life and death.  You do not want to die, as many girls die.  To many a girl marriage is life.  I will get something quite harmless, and quite tasteless.”

She waited for him in the sitting-room.  He returned in a few minutes with a small bottle, which he pressed into her hand.  “And now, au revoir; in a few hours you will be mine for ever.”

After leaving her he dined; after dinner went to a gambling hell, where he lost a good deal of money, and would have lost more, had the necessity of keeping at least L200 for his wedding-tour not been so imperative.  He wandered about the streets talking to and sometimes strolling about with the light women, listening to their lamentable stories—­“anything,” he thought, “to distract my mind.”  He was to meet Lily on the staircase at one o’clock, and now it was half-past twelve, and giving the poor creature whose chatter had beguiled the last half-hour a louis, he returned hurriedly to his hotel.

The lift had ceased working, and he ascended the great staircase, three steps at a time.  On the second floor he stopped to reconnoitre.  The gardien lay fast asleep on a bench; he could not do better than sit on the stairs and wait; if the man awoke he would have to be bribed.  Lily’s number was 45, a dozen doors down the passage.  At one o’clock the gardien awoke.  Mike entered into conversation with him, gave him a couple of francs, bade him good-night, and went partly up the next flight of stairs.  Listening for every sound, expecting every moment to hear a door open, he waited till the clocks struck the half-hour.  Then he became as if insane, and he deemed it would not be enough if she were to disappoint him to set the hotel on fire and throw himself from the roof.  Something must happen, if he were to remain sane, and, determined to dare all, he decided he would seek her in her room and bear her away.  He knew he would have to pass through Mrs. Young’s room.  What should he do if she awoke, and, taking him for a robber, raised the alarm?

Putting aside such surmises he turned the handle of her door as quietly as he could.  The lock gave forth hardly any sound, the door passed noiselessly over the carpet.  He hesitated, but only for a moment, and drawing off his shoes he prepared to cross the room.  A night-light was burning, and it revealed the fat outline of a huge body huddled in the bed-clothes.  He would have to pass close to Mrs. Young.  He glided by, passing swiftly towards the further room, praying that the door would open without a sound.  It was ajar, and opened without a sound.  “What luck!” he thought, and a moment after he stood in Lily’s room.  She lay upon the bed, as if she had fallen there, dressed in a long travelling-cloak, her hat crushed on one side.