answer to this remark, but sat silent for a few moments.
Then he said: "Well, have you settled it with Miss March?"

"No, I have not," said Lawrence. "If the matter had been decided, one
way or the other, I should not be here. I have no right to trespass on
your aunt's hospitality, and I should have departed as soon as I had
discovered Miss March's sentiments in regard to me. But I have not been
able to settle the matter, at all. I had one opportunity of seeing the
lady, and that was not a satisfactory interview. Yesterday morning, I
made another attempt, but before I could get to her I sprained my ankle.
And here I am; I can not go to her, and, of course, she will not come to
me. You cannot imagine how I chafe under this harassing restraint."

"I can imagine it very easily," said Junius.

"The only thing I have to hope for," said Lawrence, "is that to-morrow
may be a fine day, and that the lady may come outside and give me the
chance of speaking to her at this open door."

Junius smiled grimly. "It appears to me," he said, "as if it were likely
to rain for several days. But now I must go into the house and see the
family. I hope you believe me, sir, when I say I am sorry to find you in
your present predicament."

"Yes," said Lawrence, smiling, although he did not feel at all gay,
"for, otherwise, I might have been finally rejected and far away."

"If you had been rejected," said Junius, "I should have been very glad,
indeed, to have you stay with us."

"Thank you," said Lawrence.

"I will look in upon you again," said Junius, as he left the room.

Lawrence's mind, which had been in a very unpleasant state of troubled
restiveness for some days, was now thrown into a sad turmoil by this
arrival of Junius Keswick. As he saw that tall and good-looking young
man going up the steps of the house porch, with his valise in his hand,
he clinched both his fists as they rested on the arm of his chair, and
objurgated the anti-detective.

"If it had not been for that rascal," he said to himself, "I should not
have written to Keswick, and he would not have thought of coming back at
this untimely moment. The only advantage I had was a clear coast, and
now that is gone. Of course Keswick was frightened when he found I was
staying in the same house with Roberta March, and hurried back to attend
to his own interests. The first thing he will do now will be to propose
to her himself; and, as they have been engaged once, it is as