‘Nor I; ye can ask her, if ye like,’ responded Teen calmly; then quite suddenly she dropped her mask of indifference, and, laying her thin, worn fingers on his arm, lifted her penetrating eyes swiftly to his uneasy face.  ‘I say, where’s Liz?’

‘How should I know?  How dare you question me?’ he asked passionately.  ’I shall warn Miss Graham against you, that you are not a proper person to have in her house.  You are not fit to breathe the same air with her.’

‘Maybe no’; but as fit as you,’ she answered scornfully.  ’I see through it a’; but if ye have harmed Liz, my gentleman, ye’ll no’ get off wi’ it.  Ye’ll answer for it to me.’

Mrs. Fordyce had called her vulgar and commonplace; she did not look so now; passion transformed her into a noble creature.  The man of the world, accustomed to its homage and adulation, cowed before the little seamstress of the slums.  While she walked away from him, as if scorning to bandy further words, he looked after her in consternation.  She had not only surprised, she had made a coward of him for the moment.  He seemed to see in the slight, insignificant form of the city girl the Nemesis who would sooner or later bring his evil deeds home, and thwart what was at the present moment the highest ambition of his life.

His step lagged as he continued his way towards the house, within whose walls dwelt the woman whom love and ambition prompted him to make his wife.  It was not, however, the reluctance of a dishonoured soul to seek communion with one so absolutely pure, it was merely the hesitation of a prudence wholly selfish.  He rapidly reviewed the situation, considered every possibility and every likely issue, and took his resolve.  He could not afford to wait.  If Gladys was ever to be his, she must be won at once.  If she cared sufficiently for him to pledge herself to him, he believed that she would stand by him and take his word, whatever slander might assail his name.  He had not anticipated this crisis when, in a careless, idle mood, he had left the mill, and followed the impulse which sent him to Bourhill.

By the time he reached the steps before the door every trace of disturbance had vanished, and he was once more the urbane, handsome, debonair gentleman who played such havoc among women’s hearts.

Miss Graham being at home, he was at once shown into the drawing-room, and left there while the maid took his name to her mistress.  Meanwhile Teen, instead of going into the lodge, passed through the gates, and walked away up the road.  She was utterly alone, the only sign of life being a flock of sheep in the distance, trotting on sedately before a tall shepherd and a collie dog.  Teen never saw them.  She was fearfully excited, believing that she had at last discovered the clue to her missing friend.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXV.

THE FIRST WOOER.

Gladys was writing a long letter to her guardian, setting forth in eloquent terms what she wished to do for the working girls of the East End, and asking him for some sympathy and advice, when the housemaid knocked at the door.