yes, to be sure, Mr. Lenox; very likely not," was Miss Blake's
comment, in a tone of indifferent recollection.

"He comes here very often, almost every night, in fact," remarked Mrs.
Carling, looking up sideways at her sister's back.

"Now that you mention it," said Mary dryly, "I have noticed something of
the sort myself."

"Do you think he ought to?" asked her sister, after a moment of silence.

"Why not?" said the girl, turning to her questioner for the first time.
"And why should I think he should or should not? Doesn't he come to see
Julius, and on Julius's invitation? I have never asked him--but once,"
she said, flushing a little as she recalled the occasion and the wording
of the invitation.

"Do you think," returned Mrs. Carling, "that his visits are wholly on
Julius's account, and that he would come so often if there were no other
inducement? You know," she continued, pressing her point timidly but
persistently, "he always stays after we go upstairs if you are at home,
and I have noticed that when you are out he always goes before our time
for retiring."

"I should say," was the rejoinder, "that that was very much the proper
thing. Whether or not he comes here too often is not for me to say--I
have no opinion on the subject. But, to do him justice, he is about the
last man to wait for a tacit dismissal, or to cause you and Julius to
depart from what he knows to be your regular habit out of politeness to
him. He is a person of too much delicacy and good breeding to stay
when--if--that is to say--" She turned again to the window without
completing her sentence, and, though Mrs. Carling thought she could
complete it for her, she wisely forbore. After a moment of silence, Mary
said in a voice devoid of any traces of confusion:

"You asked me if I thought Mr. Lenox would come so often if there were
no object in his coming except to see Julius. I can only say that if
Julius were out of the question I think he would come here but seldom;
but," she added, as she left the window and resumed her seat, "I do not
quite see the object of this discussion, and, indeed, I am not quite
sure of what we are discussing. Do you object," she asked, looking
curiously at her sister and smiling slightly, "to Mr. Lenox's coming
here as he does, and if so, why?" This was apparently more direct than
Mrs. Carling was quite prepared for. "And if you do," Mary proceeded,
"what is to be done about it? Am I to make him understand that