…last half -hour. I came here to be alone — utterly alone — save for him!” and here she gave a kind of convulsive sob and stretched her hands appealingly before her. The woman interested me, and I felt that there was much in her that would furnish me with copy — copy for some article on real humanity, on the flotsam and jetsam of womanhood.And so, instead of obeying her injunctions to go, I stayed.Tell me,” I said persuasively, your history. You can confide in me; I am old — old enough to be your ” — then I thought of my bare thirty-seven summers, and blushed — ” well, old enough to be your uncle. May I sit down? “The seats,” she murmured, are free to all. I can go!”She rose, and I touched her gently on the arm. Come! I said, “You can trust me. I’m only…

…enabled me to recognise my surroundings. I was still in the armchair, and before me on the table lay the dessert and wine.”Every vestige of silver had gone; and so had my host and hostess. Here the man on” the bench laughed bitterly. “I was duped, of course!” he added;” the man and the woman were no more Mr. and Mrs. Montague than they were Red Indians! They were part of a gang of notorious burglars who had been wanted for a long time!””Good Heavens!” I cried, *’ they were caught? ‘”Caught, yes” the man on the bench hissed; “seven years apiece, and as for me — I got dismissed! Dismissed! And I have not had the heart to look for another job since!”I gave him five shillings — all I had with me — which he accepted gratefully, and I left him there muttering — muttering that it was…