"I like my friends ready-made, I think," said Holroyd; "but one must make the best of it, I suppose."

They had come to the end of the Row; the gates of Kensington Gardens were locked, and behind the bars a policeman was watching them suspiciously, as if he suspected they might attempt a forcible entry.

"Well," said Mark, stopping, "I suppose you turn off here?" Holroyd would have been willing to go on with him as far as Kensington had Mark proposed it, but he gave no sign of desiring this, so his friend"s pride kept him silent too.

"One word more about the--the book," he said. "I may put your name and address on the t.i.tle-page, then? It goes off to Chilton and Fladgate to-night."

"Oh yes, of course," said Mark, "put whatever you like."

"I"ve not given them my real name, and, if anything comes of it, I should like that kept a secret."

"Just as you please; but why?"

"If I keep on at the Bar, a novel, whether it"s a success or not, is not the best bait for briefs," said Holroyd; "and besides, if I am to get a slating, I"d rather have it under an _alias_, don"t you see? So the only name on the t.i.tle-page is "Vincent Beauchamp.""

"Very well," said Mark, "none shall know till you choose to tell them, and, if anything has to be done about the book, I"ll see to it with pleasure, and write to you when it"s settled. So you can make your mind easy about _that_."

"Thanks," said Holroyd; "and now, good-bye, Mark."

There was real feeling in his voice, and Mark himself caught something of it as he took the hand Vincent held out.

"Good-bye, old boy," he said. "Take care of yourself--pleasant voyage and good luck. You"re no letter-writer, I know, but you"ll drop me a line now and then, I hope. What"s the name of the ship you go out in?"

"The "Mangalore." She leaves the Docks to-morrow. Good-bye for the present, Mark. We shall see one another again, I hope. Don"t forget all about me before that."

"No, no," said Mark; "we"ve been friends too long for that."

One more good-bye, a momentary English awkwardness in getting away from one another, and they parted, Holroyd walking towards Bayswater across the bridge, and Mark making for Queen"s Gate and Kensington.

Mark looked after his friend"s tall strong figure for a moment before it disappeared in the dark. "Well, I"ve seen the last of him," he thought. "Poor old Holroyd! to think of his having written a book--he"s one of those unlucky beggars who never make a hit at anything. I expect I shall have some trouble about it by-and-by."

Holroyd walked on with a heavier heart. "He won"t miss me," he told himself. "Will Mabel say good-bye like that?"

CHAPTER III.

GOOD-BYE.

On the same afternoon in which we have seen Mark and Vincent walk home together for the last time, Mrs. Langton and her eldest daughter Mabel were sitting in the pretty drawing-room of their house in Kensington Park Gardens.

Mrs. Langton was the wife of a successful Q.C. at the Chancery Bar, and one of those elegantly languid women with a manner charming enough to conceal a slight shallowness of mind and character; she was pretty still, and an invalid at all times when indisposition was not positively inconvenient.

It was one of her "at home" days, but fewer people than usual had made their appearance, and these had filtered away early, leaving traces of their presence behind them in the confidential grouping of seats and the teacups left high and dry in various parts of the room.

Mrs. Langton was leaning luxuriously back in a low soft chair, lazily watching the firebeams glisten through the stained-gla.s.s screen, and Mabel was on a couch near the window trying to read a magazine by the fading light.

"Hadn"t you better ring for the lamps, Mabel?" suggested her mother.

"You can"t possibly see to read by this light, and it"s so trying for the eyes. I suppose no one else will call now, but it"s very strange that Vincent should not have come to say good-bye."

"Vincent doesn"t care about "at homes,"" said Mabel.

"Still, not to say good-bye--after knowing us so long, too! and I"m sure we"ve tried to show him every kindness. Your father was always having solicitors to meet him at dinner, and it was never any use; and he sails to-morrow. I think he _might_ have found time to come!"

"So do I," agreed Mabel. "It"s not like Vincent, though he was always shy and odd in some things. He hasn"t been to see us nearly so much lately, but I can"t believe he will really go away without a word."

Mrs. Langton yawned delicately. "It would not surprise me, I must say," she said. "When a young man sets himself----" but whatever she was going to say was broken off by the entrance of her youngest daughter Dolly, with the German governess, followed by the man bearing rose-shaded lamps.

Dolly was a vivacious child of about nine, with golden locks which had a pretty ripple in them, and deep long-lashed eyes that promised to be dangerous one day. "We took Frisk out without the leash, mummy," she cried, "and when we got into Westbourne Grove he ran away. Wasn"t it too bad of him?"

"Never mind, darling, he"ll come back quite safe--he always does."

"Ah, but it"s his running away that I mind," said Dolly; "and you know what a dreadful state he always _will_ come back in. He must be cured of doing it somehow."

"Talk to him very seriously about it, Dolly," said Mabel.

"I"ve tried that--and he only cringes and goes and does it again directly he"s washed. I know what I"ll do, Mabel. When he comes back this time, he shall have a jolly good whacking!"

"My _dear_ child," cried Mrs. Langton, "what a dreadful expression!"

"Colin says it," said Dolly, though she was quite aware that Colin was hardly a purist in his expressions.

"Colin says a good many things that are not pretty in a little girl"s mouth."

"So he does," said Dolly cheerfully. "I wonder if he knows? I"ll go and tell him of it--he"s come home." And she ran off just as the door-bell rang.

"Mabel, I really think that must be some one else coming to call after all. Do you know, I feel so tired and it"s so late that I think I will leave you and Fraulein to talk to them. Papa and I are going out to dinner to-night, and I must rest a little before I begin to dress.

I"ll run away while I can."

Mrs. Langton fluttered gracefully out of the room as the butler crossed the hall to open the door, evidently to a visitor, and presently Mabel heard "Mr. Holroyd" announced.

"So you really have come after all," said Mabel, holding out her hand with a pretty smile of welcome. "Mamma and I thought you meant to go away without a word."

"You might have known me better than that," said Holroyd.

"But when your last afternoon in England was nearly over and no sign of you, there _was_ some excuse for thinking so; but you have come at last, so we won"t scold you. Will you have some tea? It isn"t very warm, I"m afraid, but you are so very late, you know. Ring, and you shall have some fit to drink."

Vincent accepted tea, chiefly because he wanted to be waited upon once more by her with the playful, gracious manner, just tinged with affectionate mockery, which he knew so well; and then he talked to her and Fraulein Mozer, with a heavy sense of the unsatisfactory nature of this triangular conversation for a parting interview.

The governess felt this too. She had had a shrewd suspicion for some time of the state of Holroyd"s feelings towards Mabel, and felt a sentimental pity for him, condemned as he was to disguise them under ordinary afternoon conversation.

"He is going away," she thought; "but he shall have his chance, the poor young man. You will not think it very rude, Mr. Holroyd," she said, rising: "it will not disturb you if I practise? There is a piece which I am to play at a school concert to-morrow, and do not yet know it."

"Vincent won"t mind, Ottilia dear," said Mabel. "Will you, Vincent?"

So the governess went to the further room where the piano stood, and was soon performing a conveniently noisy German march. Vincent sat still for some moments watching Mabel. He wished to keep in his memory the impression of her face as he saw it then, lighted up by the soft glow of the heavily shaded lamp at her elbow; a spirited and yet tender face, with dark-grey eyes, a sensitive, beautiful mouth, and brown hair with threads of gold in it which gleamed in the lamplight as she turned her graceful head.