Mr. Pennell, you must not joke about it! This is something
serious! Poor Bobby grew as white as a sheet when I proposed to make a
raid upon the room some day and discover the mystery, and said that his
mother was a terrible woman, and able to do me great harm if I offended
her!”

“I quite agree with Bobby in his estimate of his Mamma being a terrible
woman,” replied Mr. Pennell, “but it is all nonsense about her being
able to harm you! _I_ should soon see about that!”

“What would you do?” asked Harriet, with downcast eyes. “What would I _not_ do to save you from anything disagreeable, let
alone anything dangerous. But the Baroness is too fond of you, surely,
to do you any harm!”

Harriet pursed up her lips. “I am not so sure about her being fond of me, Mr. Pennell! She used to
profess to be, I know, but lately her manner has very much altered. She
will pass half a day without speaking a word to me, and they have cut
off wine and champagne and everything nice from the dinner table. I
declare the meals here are sometimes not fit to eat. And I believe they
grudge me the little I consider worthy my attention.”

“But why do you stay here, if you fancy you are not welcome?” asked
Pennell, earnestly, “you are not dependent on these people or their
hospitality.”

“But where am I to go?” said the girl, “I know no one in London, and
Miss Wynward says that I am too young to live at an hotel by myself!”

“Miss Wynward is quite right! You are far too young and too beautiful. You don’t know what wicked men and women there are in the world, who
would delight in fleecing an innocent lamb like you. But I can soon
find you a home where you could stay in respectability and comfort,
until--until----”

“Until _what_,” asked Harriet, with apparent ingenuousness, for she
knew well enough what was coming. They were seated on one of those little couches made expressly for
conversation, where a couple can sit back to back, with their faces
turned to one another. Harriet half raised her slumbrous black eyes as
she put the question, and met the fire in his own. He stretched out his
arms and caught her round the waist. “Hally! Hally! you know--there is no need for me to tell you! Will you
come home to me, dearest? Don’t ever say that you are friendless again! Here is your friend and your lover and your devoted slave for ever! My
darling--my beautiful Hally, say you will be my wife--and make me the
very happiest man in all the world!”

She did not shrink from his warm wooing--that was not her nature! Her
eyes waked up and flashed fire, responsive to his own; she let her head
rest on his shoulder, and turned her lips upwards eagerly to meet his
kiss, she cooed her love into his ear, and clasped him tightly round
the neck as if she would never let him go. “I love you--I love you,” she kept on murmuring, “I have loved you from
the very first!”

“O! Hally, how happy it makes me to hear you say so,” he replied, “how
few women have the honesty and courage to avow their love as you do. My
sweet child of the sun! The women in this cold country have no idea of
the joy that a mutual love like ours has the power to bestow. We will
love each other for ever and ever, my Hally, and when our bodies are
withered by age, our spirits shall still go loving on.”

He--the man whose whole thoughts hitherto had been so devoted to the
task of ameliorating the condition of his fellow-creatures, that he had
had no time to think of dalliance, succumbed as fully to its pleasures
now, as the girl whose life had simply been a ripening process
for the seed which had burst forth into flower. They were equally
passionate--equally loving--equally unreserved--and they were soon
absorbed in their own feelings, and noticed nothing that was taking
place around them. But they were not as entirely alone as they imagined. A pale face full
of misery was watching them through one of the panes in the French
windows, gazing at what seemed like his death doom, too horribly
fascinated to tear himself away. Bobby stood there and saw Hally--_his_
Hally, as he had often fondly called her, without knowing the meaning
of the word--clasped in the arms of this stranger, pressing her lips
to his, and being released with tumbled hair and a flushed face, only
to seek the source of her delight again. At last Bobby could stand
the bitter sight no longer, and with a low moan, he fled to his own
apartment and flung himself, face downward on the bed. And Anthony
Pennell and Harriet Brandt continued to make love to each other, until
the shadows lengthened, and six o’clock was near at hand. “I must go now, my darling,” he said at last, “though it is hard to
tear myself away. But I am so happy, Hally, so very, very happy, that I
dare not complain.”

“Why cannot you stay the evening?” she urged. “I had better not! I have not been asked in the first instance, and if
what you say about the Baroness’s altered demeanour towards yourself be
true, I am afraid I should find it difficult to keep my temper. But we
part for a very short time, my darling! The first thing to-morrow, I
shall see about another home for you, where I can visit you as freely
as I like! And as soon as it can ever be, Hally, we will be married--is
that a promise?”

“A promise, yes! a thousand times over, Anthony! I long for the time
when I shall be your wife!”

“God bless you, my sweet! You have made my future life look all
sunshine! I will write to you as soon as ever I have news and then you
will lose no time in leaving your present home, will you?”

“Not an instant that I can help,” replied Harriet, eagerly; “I am
longing to get away. I feel that I have lost my footing here!”

And with another long embrace, the lovers parted. As soon as Anthony
had left her, Harriet ran up to her room, to cool her feverish face and
change her dress for dinner. She was really and truly fond of the man
she had just promised to marry, and if anything could have the power
to transform her into a thinking and responsible woman, it would be
marriage with Anthony Pennell. She was immensely proud that so clever
and popular a writer should have chosen her from out the world of women
to be his wife, and she loved him for the excellent qualities he had
displayed towards his fellow men, as well as for the passionate warmth
he had shewn for herself. She was a happier girl than she had ever
been in all her life before, as she stood, flushed and triumphant, in
front of her mirror and saw the beautiful light in her dark eyes, and
the luxuriant growth of her dusky hair, and the carmine of her lips,
and loved every charm she possessed for Anthony’s sake. She felt less
vexed even with the Baroness than she had done, and determined that she
would not break the news of her intended departure from the Red House,
that evening, but try to leave as pleasant an impression behind her as
she could!