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 the window, or pacing with hasty strides the strip of grass before the cottage.

But she never came.

Neither had he caught sight or sign of Bren- ton, though he half believed that the man loitered somewhere in the immediate vicinity. Imagination played strange tricks with him. Sometimes he would start and turn quickly, being sure that he heard her footstep; again he would rush wildly into the house certain that she had called to him. At other times he fancied he could see Brenton’s evil face star- ing at him through the hedge opposite. Once he swung swiftly across the roadway to ex- plore, and found nothing. Brenton also had vanished from the face of things.

But she never came.

On the following morning his mind was made up. He would go to London, whither she had probably flown. He remembered now that her purse contained two or three gold pieces; likewise that she wore the ring and the bangle he had given her in Guildford. Though the former was merely a wedding ring (he remembered how she professed disdain of such a subterfuge), the latter was of some value.