of himself?

"You are not vexed because I went out and left you in the early part of
the evening?" he said anxiously.

"Oh, no, indeed," she wearily replied.

She sat there with trembling lip and a red spot in each cheek, looking
at him as he read the paper unconcernedly, till she could bear it no
longer, and then silently rose and glided out of the room. Hunt heard
her running upstairs as fast as she could, and closing and locking her
chamber door.

Next day he did not see her till evening, when she was exceedingly cold
and distant, and evidently very much depressed. After bombarding her
with grieved and reproachful glances for some time, he came over to
her side, they two having been left alone, and said, with affectionate
raillery:--

"I 'd no idea you were so susceptible to the green-eyed monster."

She looked at him, astonished quite out of her reserve.

"What on earth do you mean?"

"Oh, you need n't pretend to misunderstand," he replied, with a knowing
nod. "Don't you suppose I saw how vexed you were last night when your
dear friend Miss Roberts was trying to flirt with me? But you need n't
have minded so much. She is n't my style at all."

There was something so perfectly maddening in this cool assumption that
her bitter chagrin on his account was a fond jealousy, that she fairly
choked with exasperation, and shook herself away from his caress as if
a snake had stung her. Her thin nostrils vibrated, her red lips trembled
with scorn, and her black eyes flashed ominously. He had only seen them
lighten with love before, and it was a very odd sensation to see
them for the first time blazing with anger, and that against himself.
Affecting an offended tone, he said:--

"This is really too absurd, Annie," and left the room as if in a pet,
just in time to escape the outburst he knew was coming. She sat in the
parlor with firm-set lips till quite a late hour that evening, hoping
that he would come down and give her a chance to set him right with an
indignant explanation. So humiliating to her did his misunderstanding
seem, that it was intolerable he should retain it a moment longer, and
she felt almost desperate enough to go and knock at his door and correct
it. Far too clever a strategist to risk an encounter that evening,
he sat in his room comfortably smoking and attending to arrears
of correspondence, aware that he was supposed by her to be sulking
desperately all the while. He knew that her feeling was a