rue character with clear-seeing eyes,--did allow himself to
be flattered and deceived. He knew that she was foolish and ignorant,
and that she often talked wonderful nonsense. He knew also that she
was continually contradicting herself,--as when she would strenuously
beg him to leave her, while she would continue to talk to him
in a strain that prevented the possibility of his going. But,
nevertheless, he was flattered, and he did believe that she loved
him. As to his love for her,--he knew very well that it amounted to
nothing. Now and again, perhaps twice a week, if he saw her as often,
he would say something which would imply a declaration of affection.
He felt that as much as that was expected from him, and that he ought
not to hope to get off cheaper. And now that this little play was
going on about Miss Van Siever, he did think that Mrs. Dobbs Broughton
was doing her very best to overcome an unfortunate attachment. It
is so gratifying to a young man's feelings to suppose that another
man's wife has conceived an unfortunate attachment for him! Conway
Dalrymple ought not to have been fooled by such a woman; but I fear
that he was fooled by her.

As he returned home to-day from Mrs. Broughton's house to his own
lodgings he rambled out for a while into Kensington Gardens, and
thought of his position seriously. "I don't see why I should not
marry her," he said to himself, thinking of course of Miss Van
Siever. "If Maria is not in earnest it is not my fault. And it would
be my wish that she should be in earnest. If I suppose her to be so,
and take her at her word, she can have no right to quarrel with me.
Poor Maria! At any rate it will be better for her, for no good can
come of this kind of thing. And, by heavens, with a woman like that,
of strong feelings, one never knows what may happen." And then he
thought of the condition he would be in, if he were to find her some
fine day in his own rooms, and if she were to tell him that she could
not go home again, and that she meant to remain with him!

In the meantime Mrs. Dobbs Broughton has gone down into her own
drawing-room, had tucked herself up on the sofa, and had fallen fast
asleep.

CHAPTER XXXIX

A New Flirtation

[Illustration]

John Eames sat at his office on the day after his return to London,
and answered the various letters which he had found waiting for him
at his lodgings on the previous evening. To Miss Demolines he had
already written from