e
touched me."

"But that would have meant----?" she exclaimed, startled into candor.

"Oh, yes, I know. Still--but since things have turned out differently, I
needn't trouble you with that."

She saw the truth, seeming to learn it from the set of his jaw. She
enjoyed a man who was not afraid to defy things, and she had been heard
to lament that everybody had a conscience nowadays--nay, insisted on
bringing it even into politics. She wanted to hear more--much more
now--about his surrender, and recognized as a new tribute to Harry the
fact that she could not question him. Immediately she conceived the idea
of inviting him to dinner to meet Mr Disney; but of course that must
wait for a little while.

"Everything must seem rather strange to you?" she suggested.

"Yes, very," he answered thoughtfully. "I'm beginning to think that some
day I shall look back on my boyhood with downright incredulity. I shan't
seem to have been that boy in the least."

"What are you going to do in the meantime, to procure that feeling?" She
was getting to the point she wished to arrive at, but very cautiously.

"I don't know yet. It's hard to choose."

"You certainly won't want for friends."

"Yes, that's pleasant, of course." He seemed to hint, however, that he
did not regard it as very useful.

"Oh, and serviceable too," she corrected him, with a nod of wise
experience. "Jobs are frowned at now, but many great men have started by
means of them. Robert Disney himself came in for a pocket-borough."

"Well, I really don't know," he repeated thoughtfully, but with no sign
of anxiety or fretting. "There's lots of time, Lady Evenswood."

"Not for me," she said with all her graciousness.

He smiled again, this time cordially, as he rose to take leave. But she
detained him.

"You're on friendly terms with your cousin, I suppose?"

"Certainly, if we meet. Of course I haven't seen her since I left Blent.
She's there, you know."

"Have you written to her?"

"No. I think it's best not to ask her to think of me just now."

She looked at him a moment, seeming to consider.

"Perhaps," she said at last. "But don't over-do that. Don't be cruel."

"Cruel?" There was strong surprise in his voice and on his face.

"Yes, cruel. Have you ever troubled to think what she may be feeling?"

"I don't know that I ever have," Harry admitted slowly. "At first sight
it looks as if I were the person who might be supposed to be feeling."

"At firs