SEALS OF DESTINY Ten minutes later she returned, panting, her face pale and haggard, her mouth hard-set.

For a moment she stood in silence upon the threshold of the open doors leading to the grounds, her hand pressed to her breast in a strenuous endeavour to calm herself.

She feared that her father might detect her agitation, for he was so quick in discovering in her the slightest unusual emotion.

She glanced behind her with an expression full of fear, as though dreading the reappearance of that man who had compelled her to follow him out into the night.

Then she looked at her father, who, still seated motionless with his back to her, was busy with his fingers upon something on the blotting-pad before him.
In that brief absence her countenance had entirely changed.