“His name is Edwards,” returned Ida, pronouncing it as if the sound excited loathing in her.  “I had been living in this way for nearly half-a-year, when one day this man called and came up to my sitting-room.  He said he had an appointment with Mr. Bolter, who would come presently.  I sat scarcely speaking, but he talked on.  Presently, Mr. Bolter came.  He seemed surprised to find the other man with me, and almost at once turned round and went out again.  Edwards followed him, saying to me that he wondered what it all meant.  The meaning was made clear to me a few hours after.  There came a short note from Mr. Bolter, saying that he had suspected that something was wrong, and that under the circumstances he could of course only say good-bye.

I can’t say that I was sorry; I can’t say that I was glad.  I despised him for his meanness, not even troubling myself to try and make sure of what had happened.  The same night Edwards came to see me again, made excuses, blamed his friend, shuffled here and there, and gave me clearly to understand what he wanted.  I scarcely spoke, only told him to go away, and that he need never speak to me anywhere or at any time; it would be useless.  Well, I changed my lodgings for those I now have, and simply began the life I now—­ the life I have been leading.  Work was more impossible for me than ever, and I had to feed and clothe myself.”

“How long ago was that?” asked Waymark, without looking up.

“Four months.”

Ida rose from the beach.  The tide had gone down some distance; there were stretches of smooth sand, already dry in the sunshine.

“Let us walk back on the sands,” she said, pointing.

“You are going home?”

“Yes, I want to rest a little.  I will meet you again about eight o’clock, if you like.”

Waymark accompanied her as far as the door, then strolled on to his own lodgings, which were near at hand.  It was only the second day that they had been in Hastings, yet it seemed to him as if he had been walking about on the seashore with Ida for weeks.  For all that, he felt that he was not as near to her now as he had been on certain evenings in London, when his arrival was to her a manifest pleasure, and their talk unflagging from hour to hour.  She did not show the spirit of holiday, seemed weary from time to time, was too often preoccupied and indisposed to talk.  True, she had at length fulfilled her promise of telling him the whole of her story, but even this increase of confidence Waymark’s uneasy mind strangely converted into fresh source of discomfort to himself.  She had made this revelation—­he half believed—­on purpose to keep up the distance between them, to warn him how slight occasion had led her from what is called the path of virtue, that he might not delude himself into exaggerated estimates of her character.  Such a thought could of course only be due to the fact that Ida’s story had indeed produced something