seems, there is
nothing truer than that people who have always gone right don't know
half as much about the nature and ways of going right as those do who
have gone wrong. However, it is not desirable for me to chill your
summer-time by going into this.'

'You have not told me even now if I am really vain.'

'If I say Yes, I shall offend you; if I say No, you'll think I don't
mean it,' he replied, looking curiously into her face.

'Ah, well,' she replied, with a little breath of distress, '"That which
is exceeding deep, who will find it out?" I suppose I must take you as I
do the Bible--find out and understand all I can; and on the strength of
that, swallow the rest in a lump, by simple faith. Think me vain, if you
will. Worldly greatness requires so much littleness to grow up in, that
an infirmity more or less is not a matter for regret.'

'As regards women, I can't say,' answered Knight carelessly; 'but it is
without doubt a misfortune for a man who has a living to get, to be born
of a truly noble nature. A high soul will bring a man to the workhouse;
so you may be right in sticking up for vanity.'

'No, no, I don't do that,' she said regretfully.

Mr. Knight, when you are gone, will you send me something you have
written? I think I should like to see whether you write as you have
lately spoken, or in your better mood. Which is your true self--the
cynic you have been this evening, or the nice philosopher you were up to
to-night?'

'Ah, which? You know as well as I.'

Their conversation detained them on the lawn and in the portico till the
stars blinked out. Elfride flung back her head, and said idly--

'There's a bright star exactly over me.'

'Each bright star is overhead somewhere.'

'Is it? Oh yes, of course. Where is that one?' and she pointed with her
finger.

'That is poised like a white hawk over one of the Cape Verde Islands.'

'And that?'

'Looking down upon the source of the Nile.'

'And that lonely quiet-looking one?'

'He watches the North Pole, and has no less than the whole equator for
his horizon. And that idle one low down upon the ground, that we have
almost rolled away from, is in India--over the head of a young friend of
mine, who very possibly looks at the star in our zenith, as it hangs
low upon his horizon, and thinks of it as marking where his true love
dwells.'

Elfride glanced at Knight with misgiving. Did he mean her? She could not
see his features; but his attitude see