rtons, old and young,
regarded him with glowing eyes and punctuated their sentences with
"Robert says," "Robert thinks," as though his opinion was sufficient to
settle the most knotty point.

It was towards the end of the evening, when Vanna had her first quiet
word with the hero of the occasion.

"What does it mean?" he asked at once. "Is it serious?" And when she
queried blankly, "Her headache?" he replied, with such a transparency of
distress, that she was ashamed to confess the unreality of the excuse.

"Oh, no--no. Nothing serious. A very passing thing."

"Then why is she leaving town so suddenly?"

Vanna looked at him, and the impulse came to speak the unvarnished
truth, unconventional though it might be.

"To avoid you! You should not be so precipitate. It is disconcerting,
to put it mildly, to have a man make violent love to one at a first
meeting."

"I did not make love."

"Not in so many words, perhaps."

Gloucester blushed, remembering the rosebud at that moment pressed
between the leaves of his pocket-book. For a few moments he was silent,
gazing before him in puzzled fashion, then suddenly the shadow passed,
he turned towards her with a smile, his eyes clear and untroubled.

"And so she is going to run away, a make-believe little journey of two
or three hours? Does she imagine that she can hide herself so easily?
There is no corner of the earth where I would not follow to find her at
the end. She belongs to me. Do you imagine I shall give her up?"

Vanna was silent. In her heart of hearts she had no doubt on the point,
and believed Jean's fate already settled; but she saw Edith's eyes fixed
upon her from across the room, and felt a keen sympathy with the
disappointment in store. Edith was no longer young; Edith had waited;
for Edith the chances of life might be few and far between, while Jean
held the open sesame of charm and beauty.

"May I give you some advice?" she said quickly. "You will probably
refuse to take it, but it's on my mind to give it all the same. Don't
be in a hurry. Let Jean go; don't try to see her. Stay behind, and
think things over. She is beautiful, and your meeting was dramatic.
Even I felt carried away. But marriage!--that is terribly serious. One
ought to be so sure. You have her happiness to remember, as well as
your own. Jean is impetuous and romantic. If she knew what we know,
she would feel that all was settled, and that she had no choice. Yo