She had broken her engagement.

Why?
It was a battle, indeed, he was fighting with that still, cold antagonist, whom he half despised and half feared, the man concerning whose actual personality he had felt so many doubts.
What if things should go wrong to-night, if the whole dramatic story should be handed over for the glory and wonder of the halfpenny press! He could fancy their headlines, imagine even their trenchant paragraphs.
It was skating on the thinnest of ice--and for what?
His fingers gripped the damp window-sill.

He raised himself a little higher.

His eyes fell upon his watch--still a minute or two to twelve.

Slowly he stole to his door and listened.