be highly flourishing. And as has been
previously stated, Sidney in accepting the
trust, honestly meant to fulfil it with a
single-minded view to his friend's advantage.

Then came temptation: a combination
of temptations. He needed a large sum
to complete the amount necessary for the
purchase of a share in a flourishing legal
business. On his obtaining the share,
depended his marriage with a woman whom
he passionately loved. He used the greater
portion of Lockwood's money for this
purpose. He described the transaction to
himself thus: "Robert shall find this a better
investment than any I proposed to him. The
business is as safe as the Bank of England.
With an infusion of skill and energy such
as I can bring to it, wealth, great wealth,
is absolutely certain. I borrow Robert's
money at handsomer interest than he could
easily obtain in any other way!"

All the while he was desperately ashamed
and troubled in his inmost heart.

Zillah had been told by her husband of
his having confided his money to Frost.
She had almost as undoubting faith in
their friend as Robert had. But she asked,
"You have a formal acknowledgment for
the money, of course?"

"He wrote me some kind of receipt, or
I O U. I don't think it is what you call
a 'formal acknowledgment,' little wife.
But from Sidney it is sufficient."

"You will keep it carefully, dear
Robert?"

"Oh, yes; of course."

"Because, you know, if Mr. Frost were
to—to die!"

Zillah's quick intelligence discovered that
something was wrong with Sidney after he
had undertaken her husband's trust. He
kept away from their house more than had
been his wont. He was going to be
married. He had obtained his long-coveted
partnership. A suspicion of the truth
darted into her mind. She endeavoured
to take him off his guard by adroit questions.
But her woman's cunning was no
match for Sidney Frost.

He confronted the matter boldly and with
outward coolness, although he inwardly
writhed with mortification to be abased
before this woman who had been so humbly
grateful at his feet. He told Zillah how
he had applied her husband's money.

"It is not exactly the investment I had
proposed, but it will be, in the end, a far
better one than any other, for you all. I
have not mentioned my change of plan to
Robert. He is not well enough to be
bothered about business. He is the
best-hearted, dearest fellow in the world;
but you know that it is sometimes necessary to
hoodwink him for his own good."

At the word, the hot blood rushed to
Zillah's face, and her temples throbbed
painfully. She understood perfectly the
kind of bargain that was being made. She
reflected that her first deception was now
bearing its legitimate fruit.

She was helpless. She carefully locked
Mr. Frost's informal receipt into her
writing-desk, and submitted in silence.

"When Robert gets better," she said to
herself, " I will summon resolution to tell
him everything. I will."

But Robert never got better; and within
a few months he was laid in his grave.

CHAPTER V. A MORNING CALL.

MR. FROST drove home to Bayswater
after business hours, on the day on which
Mrs. Lockwood had visited him, very weary
in body and sick at heart.

Mrs. Frost had the most stylish of tiny
broughams, drawn by a pawing steed,
whose action gave one the idea that it had
been taught to dance on hot iron, like a bear.

Mr. Frost used a street cab when he
drove at all. Very often he returned home
on foot. On this special afternoon, he was
thoroughly tired. He had been into the
City, into offices wherein his partner would
have been much amazed to see him, and on
business of which that partner had not the
faintest suspicion.

As the cab jingled and rattled along the
busy streets towards Bayswater, Mr. Frost
leaned his head back against the frowsy
cushion and closed his eyes. But he could
not deaden his hot brain. That was alive,
and feverishly active. He ground his teeth
when he thought of Zillah Lockwood. And
yet he pitied her.

"If I could coin my blood into guineas
she should have her own," said he,
mentally.

But if Mr. Frost could have coined his
blood into guineas—in one sense he did
coin flesh, and blood, and health, and life
into lucre—it is probable that still Mrs.
Lockwood would not have had her own.
For, Mrs. Frost had an insatiable appetite
for guineas, and would have received
any amount of them with the greedy
immobility of a gaping-mouthed Indian idol.

She was an idol that had cost her husband
dear, and yet he still worshipped her:
worshipped her and did not respect her!