A Damsel in Distress

"I hope you've not been waiting long?"

George's heart was thundering against his ribs. He could scarcely

speak. He contrived to emit a No.

"I didn't think at first I could get away. I had to . . ." She

broke off with a cry. The rat, fond of exercise like all rats, had

made another of its excitable sprints across the floor.

A hand clutched nervously at George's arm, found it and held it.

And at the touch the last small fragment of George's self-control

fled from him. The world became vague and unreal. There remained

of it but one solid fact--the fact that Maud was in his arms and

that he was saying a number of things very rapidly in a voice that

seemed to belong to somebody he had never met before.