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280 280 CHEATING THE GALLOWS.

must be awfully thirsty this sultry weather. There ! I will make a bargain with you ! If you will come in now, I promise to clear out the moment Everard returns, and not spoil your tete-a-tete." But Clara was obstinate ; she did not at all relish this man's society, and besides, she was not going to throw away her grievance against Everard. " I know Everard will slang me dreadfully when he comes in if I let you go," Tom urged. " Tell me at least where he can find you."

" I am going to take the 'bus at Charing Cross, and I'm going straight home," Clara announced determinedly. She put up her parasol in a pet, and went up the street into the Strand. A cold shadow seemed to have fallen over all things. But just as she was getting into the 'bus, a hansom dashed down Trafalgar Square, and a well-known voice hailed her. The hansom stopped, and Everard got out and held out his hand.

" I'm so glad you're a bit late," he said. " I was called out unexpectedly, and have been trying to rush back in time. You wouldn't have found me if you had been punctual. But I thought," he added, laughing, " I could rely on you as a woman."

" I was punctual," Clara said angrily. " I was not getting out of this 'bus, as you seem to imagine, but into it, and was going home."

" My darling ! " he cried remorsefully. " A thousand apologies." The regret on his handsome face soothed her. He took the rose he was wearing in the buttonhole of his fashionably cut coat and gave it to her.

"Why were you so cruel?" he murmured, as she nestled against him in the hansom. "Think of my despair if I had come home to hear you had come and gone. Why didn't you wait a moment?"