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get mixed up with the grim realities of such a life as mine.
She only laughed. Why, I have been mixed up with them ever since
I was a baby!
True; but now it is different. The world might judge thee
harshly, people might say things which would wound thee.
They say! LET them say!' quoted Erica, smiling. mens conscia
recti will carry one through worse things than a little slander.
No, no, you must really let me have my own way. It is right, and
there's an end of it!
Raeburn let things run their course; he agreed with Erica all the
time, though his heart impelled him to keep her at home. And as to
Eric Haeberlein, it would have needed a far stronger mind than that
of the sweettempered, quixotic German to resist the generous help
offered by such a lovely girl.
There was no time to lose; the latest train for the Continent left
at 9:25, and before Haeberlein had adjusted his new disguise the
clock struck nine. Erica very carefully blackened his eyebrows and
ruthlessly sheared the long black wig to an ordinary and
unnoticeable length, and, when Tom's ulster and hat were added, the
disguise was so perfect, and made Haeberlein look so absurdly
young, that Raeburn himself could not possibly have recognized him.
In past years Raeburn had often risked a great deal for his friend.
At one time his house had been watched day and night in consequence
of his wellknown friendship with the Republican Don Quixote.
Unfortunately, therefore, it was only too probable that Haeberlein
in risking his visit this evening might have run into a trap. If
he were being searched for, his friend's house would almost
inevitably be watched.
They exchanged farewells, not without some show of emotion on each
side, and just at the last Raeburn hastily bent down and kissed
Erica's forehead, at his heart a sickening sense of anxiety. She
too was anxious, but she was very happy to have found on the
evening of her baptism so unusual a service to render to her
father, and, besides, the consciousness of danger always raised her
spirits.
When, as they had half expected, they found the wouldbe
naturallooking detective prowling up and down the culdesac, it
was no effort to her to begin at once a laughing account of a
school examination which Charles Osmond had told her about, and so
naturally and brightly did she talk that, though actually brushing
past the spy under the full light of the street lamp., she entirely
disarmed suspicion.
It was a horrible moment, however. Her heart beat wildly as they
passed on, and every moment she thought she should hear quick steps
behind them. But nothing came of it, and in a few minutes they

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