The Odds. Ethel M. Dell

blindly through the passage, scarcely knowing which way she went, intent only upon escape.

      A man at the foot of the stairs stood aside for her, and she fled past him without a glance. He turned and watched her with keen, alert eyes till she was out of sight. Then, without haste, he took his way in the direction whence she had come.

      But he did not go beyond the threshold of the little dusty conservatory, for something he saw within made him draw swiftly back.

      When Fletcher Hill went to the court that day, he was grimmer, colder, more unapproachable even than was his wont. He had to deal with one or two minor cases from the gold mine, and the treatment he meted out was of as severe an order as circumstances would permit.