Worse yet, all this seemed to be connected in some strange way with Arkwright.

He found this out by accident one day.

She had been talking and laughing brightly about something, when he chanced to introduce Arkwright's name.
"By the way, where is Mary Jane these days ?" he asked then.
"I don't know, I'm sure.

He hasn't been here lately," murmured Billy, reaching for a book on the table.
At a peculiar something in her voice, he had looked up quickly, only to find, to his great surprise, that her face showed a painful flush as she bent over the book in her hand.
He had said nothing more at the time, but he had not forgotten.

Several times, after that, he had introduced the man's name, and never had it failed to bring a rush of color, a biting of the lip, or a quick change of position followed always by the troubled eyes and nervous manner that he had learned to dread.