Half an hour later Blackton had shown Aldous to his room and bath.

It was four o'clock when he rejoined the contractor in the lower room, freshly bathed and shaven and in a change of clothes.

He had not seen Joanne, but half a dozen times he had heard her and Peggy Blackton laughing and talking in Mrs.Blackton's big room at the head of the stairs, and he heard them now as they sat down to smoke their cigars.

Blackton was filled with enthusiasm over the accomplishment of his latest work, and Aldous tried hard not to betray the fact that the minutes were passing with gruelling slowness while he waited for Joanne.

He wanted to see her.