"then we had a talk as to what we should do, and frank was all for openness, but i was so ashamed of it all that i felt as if i should like to vanish away and never see any of them again—just sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that i was alive. it was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. so frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of them, so that i should not be traced, and dropped them away somewhere where no one could find them. it is likely that we should have gone on to paris to-morrow, only that this good gentleman, mr. holmes, came round to us this evening, though how he found us is more than i can think, and he showed us very clearly and kindly that i was wrong and that frank was right, and that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so secret. then he offered to give us a chance of talking to lord st. simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at once. now, robert, you have heard it all, and i am very sorry if i have given you pain, and i hope that you do not think very meanly of me."