It wouldn't help me if another company was to be started; and as the President of the Matanga Republic is on his way to England, I thought that I had better go out to Madeira, catch his steamer there, and secure a concession of it before he reaches England.' Clarice gave a laugh.

'Then we are to expect you in a fortnight ?' 'Yes, in a fortnight,' and he laid a significance upon the word which Clarice did not mistake.

It was spoken with an accent of entreaty.
But indeed she needed no emphasis to fix it in her mind.

The word besieged her; she caught herself uttering it, and while she uttered it the time itself seemed to have slipped by.

She had but to say 'No' at the end of the fortnight, she assured herself, and she knew that she would only have to say it once.