CHAPTER I.DESPAIR AND INTEREST.
They stood upon the roof of a London boarding-house in the neighborhood of Russell Square--one of those grim shelters, the refuge of Transatlantic curiosity and British penury.

The girl--she represented the former race was leaning against the frail palisading, with gloomy expression and eyes set as though in fixed contemplation of the uninspiring panorama.

The young man--unmistakably, uncompromisingly English--stood with his back to the chimney a few feet away, watching his companion.

The silence between them was as yet unbroken, had lasted, indeed, since she had stolen away from the shabby drawing-room below, where a florid lady with a raucous voice had been shouting a music-hall ditty.

Close upon her heels, but without speech of any sort, he had followed.