at he
desired of her, in spite of the opposition from the servants which she
at first experienced. She had a share of hand work to do also, which was
not light, but she had high wages, a comfortable room in the top
storey, and the women who were boarding in the house made friends with
her. She would have thought herself very well off had it not been for
her dislike of Harkness, for which one reason certainly was the show he
made of being in love with her.

Harkness had his office on the first floor, and he took dinner at the
hotel. For about a week after Eliza's advent the young dentist and the
young housekeeper measured each other with watchful eyes, a measurement
for which the fact that they crossed each other's path several times a
day gave ample opportunity. Because the woman had the steadier eyes and
the man was the more open-tempered, Eliza gained more insight into
Harkness's character than he did into hers. While he, to use his own
phrase, "couldn't reckon her up the least mite in the world," she
perceived that under his variable and sensitive nature there was a
strong grip of purpose upon all that was for his own interest in a
material way; but having discovered this vein of calculating
selfishness, mixed with much of the purely idle and something that was
really warmhearted, she became only the more suspicious of his
intentions towards herself, and summoned the whole strength of her
nature to oppose him.

She said to him one day, "I'm surprised to hear that you go about
telling other gentlemen that you like me. I wonder that you're not
ashamed."

As she had hitherto been silent, he was surprised at this attack, and at
first he took it as an invitation to come to terms.

"I've a right-down, hearty admiration for you, Miss White. I express it
whenever I get the chance; I'm not ashamed of my admiration."

"But I am," said Eliza, indignantly. "It's very unkind of you."

Harkness looked at her, failing to unravel her meaning.

"There ain't anything a young lady likes better than to have an
admirer. She mayn't always like _him_, but she always likes him to be
admiring of her."

However true this philosophy of the inner secrets of the heart might be,
Eliza did not admit it for a moment. She denounced his behaviour, but it
was clear, as the saying is, that she was speaking over the head of her
audience. The youth evidently received it as a new idea that, when he
had spoken only in her praise, she could seriou