And ever after it struck him that her backward smile as she disappeared was charged with some special significance. “You are going to treat me as though I wasn’t. The candle was shaking in his hand as Ruth appeared in the doorway. But it was now too late to turn back, and, nerving himself for the shock he expected to encounter, he ventured after his conductor. Not that he deliberately courted danger; it was rather the searcher, seeking analysis, the why and wherefore of this or that invading emotion. "There's a guinea to drink our health," she added, slipping a piece of money into his hand. "It would be a thousand pities, wouldn't it, to put so promising a lad out of the way?" "Devil!" exclaimed the knight fiercely, "Give me the paper. It isn't your duty.