smoke. Jocelyn did not sit down at once. She went
to the front of the verandah and watched her brother mount his horse.
She was a year older than Maurice Gordon, and exercised a larger
influence over his life than either of them suspected.

Presently he rode past the verandah, waving his hand cheerily. He was
one of those large, hearty Englishmen who seem to be all appetite and
laughter--men who may be said to be manly, and beyond that nothing.
Their manliness is so overpowering that it swallows up many other
qualities which are not out of place in men, such as tact and
thoughtfulness, and PERHAPS intellectuality and the power to take some
interest in those gentler things that interest women.

When Jocelyn came to the back of the verandah she was thinking about her
brother Maurice, and it never suggested itself to her that she should
not speak her thoughts to Meredith, whom she had not seen until three
weeks ago. She had never spoken of Maurice behind his back to any man
before.

"Does it ever strike you," she said, "that Maurice is the sort of man to
be led astray by evil influence?"

"Yes; or to be led straight by a good influence, such as yours."

He did not meet her thoughtful gaze. He was apparently watching the
retreating form of the horse through the tangle of flower and leaf and
tendril.

"I am afraid," said the girl, "that my influence is not of much
account."

"Do you really believe that?" asked Meredith, turning upon her with a
half-cynical smile.

"Yes," she answered simply.

Before speaking again he took a pull at his cigar.

"Your influence," he said, "appears to me to be the making of Maurice
Gordon. I frequently see serious flaws in the policy of Providence; but
I suppose there is wisdom in making the strongest influence that which
is unconscious of its power."

"I am glad you think I have some power over him," said Jocelyn; "but,
at the same time, it makes me uneasy, because it only confirms my
conviction that he is very easily led. And suppose my influence--such as
it is--was withdrawn? Suppose that I were to die, or, what appears to be
more likely, suppose that he should marry?"

"Then let us hope that he will marry the right person. People sometimes
do, you know."

She smiled with a strange little flicker of the eyelids. They had grown
wonderfully accustomed to each other during the last three weeks. Here,
it would appear, was one of those friendships between man and woman that
occa