e in being with him which she had
never experienced in the society of any other man, and underneath some
boyish ways she divined a strength and steadfastness which could be
relied upon at need. And she admitted to herself that during the ten
days since her return, though she had unsparingly snubbed her sister's
wonderings why he did not call, she had speculated a good deal upon the
subject herself, with a sort of resentful feeling against both herself
and him that she should care--

Her face flushed as she recalled the momentary pressure of his hand upon
hers on that last night on deck. She rang for the servant, and went up
to her room.

CHAPTER IX.

It is not the purpose of this narrative to dwell minutely upon the
events of the next few months. Truth to say, they were devoid of
incidents of sufficient moment in themselves to warrant chronicle. What
they led up to was memorable enough.

As time went on John found himself on terms of growing intimacy with the
Carling household, and eventually it came about that if there passed a
day when their door did not open to him it was _dies non_.

Mr. Carling was ostensibly more responsible than the ladies for the
frequency of our friend's visits, and grew to look forward to them. In
fact, he seemed to regard them as paid primarily to himself, and ignored
an occasional suggestion on his wife's part that it might not be wholly
the pleasure of a chat and a game at cards with him that brought the
young man so often to the house. And when once she ventured to concern
him with some stirrings of her mind on the subject, he rather testily
(for him) pooh-poohed her misgivings, remarking that Mary was her own
mistress, and, so far as he had ever seen, remarkably well qualified to
regulate her own affairs. Had she ever seen anything to lead her to
suppose that there was any particular sentiment existing between Lenox
and her sister?

"No," said Mrs. Carling, "perhaps not exactly, but you know how those
things go, and he always stays after we come up when she is at home." To
which her husband vouchsafed no reply, but began a protracted wavering
as to the advisability of leaving the steam on or turning it off for the
night, which was a cold one--a dilemma which, involving his personal
welfare or comfort at the moment, permitted no consideration of other
matters to share his mind.

* * * * *

Mrs. Carling had not spoken to her sister upon the s