Come and see me whenever you can." He opened the door and she passed in, looking back at him with a little wave of the hand before she vanished lightly into the shadows.

Tallente dismissed the cab and walked back towards his rooms.

His light-heartedness was passing away with every step he took.

The cheerful little groups of pleasure-seekers he encountered seemed like an affront to his increasing melancholy.

Once more he had to reckon with this strange new feeling of loneliness which had made its disturbing entrance into his thoughts within the last few years.