“Isn’t it a case of extraordinary likeness?” she asked, with a grave smile.

“Oh, dear, no!  I met his eye—­he showed that he knew me—­and then his voice.  A grocer—­in an apron?”

“This is very shocking,” said Bertha, with a recovery of her natural humour.  “Let us walk.  Let us shake off the nightmare.”

The word applied very well to Rosamund’s condition; her fixed eyes were like those of a somnambulist.

“But, Bertha!” she suddenly exclaimed, in a voice of almost petulant protest.  “He knew you all the time—­oh, but perhaps he did not know your name?”

“Indeed he did.  He’s constantly sending things to the house.”

“How extraordinary!  Did you ever hear such an astonishing thing in your life?”

“You said more than once,” remarked Bertha, “that Mr. Warburton was a man of mystery.”

“Oh, but how could I have imagined—! grocer!”

“In an apron!” added the other, with awed voice.

“But, Bertha, does Norbert know?  He declared he had never found out what Mr. Warburton did.  Was that true, or not?”

“Ah, that’s the question.  If poor Mr. Franks has had this secret upon his soul!  I can hardly believe it.  And yet—­they are such intimate friends.”

“He must have known it,” declared Rosamund.

Thereupon she became mute, and only a syllable of dismay escaped her now and then during the rest of the walk to the Crosses’ house.  Her companion, too, was absorbed in thought.  At the door Rosamund offered her hand.  No, she would not come in; she had work which must positively be finished this afternoon whilst daylight lasted.

Out of the by-street, Rosamund turned into Fulham Road, and there found a cab to convey her home.  On entering the house, she gave instructions that she was at home to nobody this afternoon; then she sat down at the table, as though to work on a drawing, but at the end of an hour her brush had not yet been dipped in colour.  She rose, stood in the attitude of one who knows not what to do, and at length moved to the window.  Instantly she drew back.  On the opposite side of the little square stood a man, looking toward her house; and that man was Warburton.

From safe retirement, she watched him.  He walked this way; he walked that; again he stood still, his eyes upon the house.  Would he cross over?  Would he venture to knock at the door?  No, he withdrew; he disappeared.

Presently it was the hour of dusk.  Every few minutes Rosamund reconnoitred at the window, and at length, just perceptible to her straining eyes, there again stood Warburton.  He came forward.  Standing with hand pressed against her side, she waited in nervous anguish for a knock at the front door; but it did not sound.  She stood motionless for a long, long time, then drew a deep, deep breath, and trembled as she let herself sink into a chair.

Earlier than usual, she went up to her bedroom.  In a corner of the room stood her trunk; this she opened, and from the chest of drawers she took forth articles of apparel, which she began to pack, as though for a journey.  When the trunk was half full, she ceased in weariness, rested for a little, and then went to bed.