errand as this. I must get back quickly.’

‘But what can I do?’ said Rose. ‘To what use can I turn this communication without you? Back! Why do you wish to return to companions you paint in such terrible colors? If you repeat this information to a gentleman whom I can summon in an instant from the next room, you can be consigned to some place of safety without half an hour’s delay.’

‘I wish to go back,’ said the girl. ‘I must go back, because — how can I tell such things to an innocent lady like you? — because among the men I have told you of, there is one: the most desperate among them all; that I can’t leave: no, not even to be saved from the life I am leading now.’

‘Your having interfered in this dear boy’s