Ralph Corbet found it a very difficult thing to keep down his curiosity during the next few days.

It was a miserable thing to have Ellinor's unspoken secret severing them like a phantom.

But he had given her his word that he would make no further inquiries from her.

Indeed, he thought he could well enough make out the outline of past events; still, there was too much left to conjecture for his mind not to be always busy on the subject.

He felt inclined to probe Mr.Wilkins in their after- dinner conversation, in which his host was frank and lax enough on many subjects.