ith evident reluctance.

"It must lie on Mrs. Parr's table for a month first," she replied. "I
promised to let her pretend to read it."

"I call that a wicked speech," he reproved. "Where is that charity
which your father has striven to inculcate in your heart?"

She slipped the book into a large Satsuma vase, with a sidelong glance
at Leigh. Cardington accepted the act with a meek acquiescence that
rested comically upon him and proclaimed his chains.

Had Leigh been asked subsequently to give a description of the dishes
of which he partook that evening, he would have made a sorry showing,
for he was conscious only of his hostess, and intoxicated by a
divination of her consciousness of him. Cardington and the bishop were
the chief talkers, and as the conversation presently turned to purely
local affairs, of which Leigh had as yet scant knowledge, he was rather
pleased than otherwise to become a listener and observer. In this
divided attitude of mind his observation was chiefly engaged. He noted
particularly the string of gold beads which Miss Wycliffe wore, and
their reflection against her throat reminded him of a children's game,
which consisted in holding a buttercup beneath the chin of a companion.

Distracted by the furtive contemplation of such minutiae, he gradually
became aware of the fact that the talk between Cardington and the
bishop had lost the tone of suavity that characterized its beginning.

"No other engagement shall interfere with my voting on that day," the
bishop declared, with grim emphasis. "We must dispose of this fellow's
pretensions once for all. It is preposterous that a professional
baseball player and street-car conductor should aspire to become mayor
of Warwick. An orator? Nonsense! Just a paltry gift of the gab.
Balaam's is n't the only ass whose mouth the Lord in his inscrutable
wisdom has seen fit to open."

Leigh suddenly awoke to the fact that a situation had developed during
his absorption, and that both men were looking at Miss Wycliffe, the
bishop defiantly, Cardington with an odd expression of concern. That
she was affected by her father's announcement and manner was evidenced
in the gleam of cold resentment with which she met his look, but in a
moment the light was gone, leaving her eyes as mysterious as a deep
pool in the woods at twilight.

"Now, bishop," Cardington protested, "I was merely trying to express
the fact that there is a certain facility in this you