d Jeff breakfasted, dined, and supped in solitude, and though
Doris became gradually accustomed to these somewhat silent meals, she
never enjoyed them. Of difficult moments there were actually very few.
They mutually avoided any but the most general subjects for
conversation. But of intimacy between them there was none. Jeff had
apparently drawn a very distinct boundary-line which he never permitted
himself to cross. He never intruded upon her. He never encroached upon
the friendship she shyly proffered. Once when she somewhat hesitatingly
suggested that he should come to her sitting-room for a little after
supper he refused, not churlishly, but very decidedly.

"I like to have my pipe and go to bed," he said.

"But you can bring your pipe, too," she said.

"No, thanks," said Jeff. "I always smoke in the kitchen or on the step."

She said no more, but went up to her room, and presently Jeff, moodily
puffing at his briar in the porch, heard the notes of her piano
overhead. She played softly for some little time, and Jeff's pipe went
out before it was finished--a most rare occurrence with him.

Only when the piano ceased did he awake to the fact, and then
half-savagely he knocked out its half-consumed contents and turned
inwards.

He found Granny Grimshaw standing in the passage in a listening
attitude, and paused to bid her good-night.

"Be you going to bed, Master Jeff?" she said. "My dear, did you ever
hear the like? She plays like an angel."

He smiled somewhat grimly, without replying.

The old woman came very close to him. "Master Jeff, why don't you go and
make love to her? Don't you know she's waiting for you?"

"Is she?" said Jeff, but he said it in the tone of one who does not
require an answer, and with the words very abruptly he passed her by.

Granny Grimshaw shook her head and sighed, "Ah, dear!" after his
retreating form.

It was a few days after this that a letter came for Doris, one morning,
bearing the Squire's crest. Her husband handed it to her at the
breakfast-table, and she received it with a flush. After a moment,
seeing him occupied with a newspaper, she opened it.

"Dear Doris," it said. "You asked me to come and see you, but I
have not done so as I was not sure if, after all, you meant me
to take the invitation literally. We have been friends for so
long that I feel constrained to speak openly. For myself, I only
ask to go on being your friend, and to