Victoria scarcely heard Austen's acknowledgments of her kindness, so
perfunctory did they seem, so unlike the man she had known; and her own
protestations that she had done nothing to merit his thanks were to her
quite as unreal. She introduced him to the Englishman.

"Mr. Rangely has been good enough to come with me," she said.

"I've never seen anybody act with more presence of mind than Miss
Flint," Rangely declared, as he shook Austen's hand. "She did just the
right thing, without wasting any time whatever."

"I'm sure of it," said Austen, cordially enough. But to Victoria's
keener ear, other tones which she had heard at other times were lacking.
Nor could she, clever as she was, see the palpable reason standing
before her!

"I say," said Rangely, as they drove away, "he strikes me as a
remarkably sound chap, Miss Flint. There is something unusual about him,
something clean cut."

"I've heard other people say so," Victoria replied. For the first time
since she had known him, praise of Austen was painful to her. What was
this curious attraction that roused the interest of all who came in
contact with him? The doctor had it, Mr. Redbrook, Jabe Jenney,--even
Hamilton Tooting, she remembered. And he attracted women as well as
men--it must be so. Certainly her own interest in him--a man beyond the
radius of her sphere--and their encounters had been strange enough! And
must she go on all her life hearing praises of him? Of one thing she was
sure--who was not?--that Austen Vane had a future. He was the type of
man which is inevitably impelled into places of trust.

Manly men, as a rule, do not understand women. They humour them blindly,
seek to comfort them--if they weep--with caresses, laugh with them if
they have leisure, and respect their curious and unaccountable moods by
keeping out of the way. Such a husband was Arthur Rangely destined to
make; a man who had seen any number of women and understood none,--as
wondrous mechanisms. He had merely acquired the faculty of appraisal,
although this does not mean that he was incapable of falling in love.

Mr. Rangely could not account for the sudden access of gayety in
Victoria's manner as they drove to Fairview through the darkness, nor
did he try. He took what the gods sent him, and was thankful. When he
reached Fairview he was asked to dinner, as he could not possibly
get back to the Inn in time. Mr. Flint had gone to Sumner with the
engineers, leaving orders to be