THE EQUINOX
\Vith fumbling fingers that trembled with excitement he
withdrew the photograph from its leaf and half showed it to
the proprietor with a whispered " Comby—ang ? "
"Trente sous," said the shopman
in his most rapid
French.
And in English, “We take English money here,
sir; ten shillings, if you please.
May I wrap it up for you?"
But Bugg had thrust it into his inner pocket, and, pressing a
sovereign
into the
man‘s hand, dashed
without
looking
behind him from the shop, eager to put time and space
between himself and his compromising position.
He hurried to his hotel, not without many a suspicious
glance over his shoulder, and packed his bag.
He had ten
minutes to spare.
He locked the door carefully, sat down
with his back to the light, and pulling the photograph from
his pocket, indulged in a long voluptuous gloat.
Then the boots knocked with the news of his cab, and
Bugg, nobler than Lord Howard of Effingham, thrust his
treasure
into
his
pocket,
unlocked
the
door
and
cried
“Venny!”
II.
Theodore Bugg, 3 year later, was paying the price of his
fall.
He had allowed
Gertrude
to
attend
Art
Classes,
although he knew it to be wrong.
But he had grown to fear
his daughter,
and—on
such
a
point
especially—he was
incapable of fighting her.
For there were times when he tried to persuade himself
that there was ”nothing wrong in it. ”
A brother church-
warden had looked a
little
askance
when
the news of
Gertrude’s “advanced ideas " had come; but Theodore had
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