marriage against your inclinations. The gossip of servants, added to the reticence of Mr. and Mrs. Shaw as to your movements (they say you are 'visiting friends'), has led to this report, no doubt. I could neither confirm nor deny it; but I confess, my dear Miss Shaw, to feeling a strong desire to relieve her Grace's mind and that of Lord Robert as to your safety, your present refuge, and your designs for the future."
He had, in point of fact, dropped, unintentionally, several hints on these subjects. Miss Shaw was abroad; she was in a great city; she was studying; she had persons of congenial tastes near her. The shrewd young man with an obstinate lip had not forgotten part of a conversation with the heiress when he was at Farley. He had no difficalty in arriving at the conclusion that the study was painting; the city, either Dresden or Paris. If the former, it would be easy to run her to earth; if the latter, it might be difficult. Still, as being the nearer, he would try it first. And so, a few days later, he arrived at Meurice's Hotel. An examination of the strangers' list at every known hotel and at Galignani's, together with inquiries at the British Embassy and at sundry bankers, proving fruitless, he had made up his mind to leave Paris that night for Dresden, when it occurred to him that there was just a chance, if she were here, of finding her in the Gallery of the Luxembourg. He had been more than once to the Louvre, but the modern pictures across the Seine he had not yet visited.
Elizabeth, though living so near it, had only been there three times since her arrival, and she always chose to do so at the earliest hour that the gallery was open,
