s and mangers
of gold? The Aults stable themselves that way. Ah, me! Let me give you a
cup of tea. Even that is English."

"It's an innocent pastime," she continued, as Philip stirred his tea,
in perplexity as to how he should begin to say what he had to say--"you
won't object if I light a cigarette? One ought to retain at least one
bad habit to keep from spiritual pride. Tea is an excuse for this. I
don't think it a bad habit, though some people say that civilization is
only exchanging one bad habit for another. Everything changes."

"I don't think I have changed, Mrs. Mavick," said Philip, with
earnestness.

"No? But you will. I have known lots of people who said they never would
change. They all did. No, you need not protest. I believe in you now, or
I should not be drinking tea with you. But you must be tired of an
old woman's gossip. Evelyn has gone out for a walk; she didn't know. I
expect her any minute. Ah, I think that is her ring. I will let her in.
There is nothing so hateful as a surprise."

She turned and gave Philip her hand, and perhaps she was sincere--she
had a habit of being so when it suited her interests--when she said,
"There are no bygones, my friend."

Philip waited, his heart beating a hundred to the minute. He heard
greetings and whisperings in the passage-way, and then--time seemed to
stand still--the door opened and Evelyn stood on the threshold, radiant
from her walk, her face flushed, the dainty little figure poised in
timid expectation, in maidenly hesitation, and then she stepped forward
to meet his advance, with welcome in her great eyes, and gave him her
hand in the old-fashioned frankness.

"I am so glad to see you."

Philip murmured something in reply and they were seated.

That was all. It was so different from the meeting as Philip had a
hundred times imagined it.

"It has been very long," said Philip, who was devouring the girl with
his eyes, "very long to me."

"I thought you had been very busy," she replied, demurely. Her composure
was very irritating.

"If you thought about it at all, Miss Mavick."

"That is not like you, Mr. Burnett," Evelyn replied, looking up suddenly
with troubled eyes.

"I didn't mean that," said Philip, moving uneasily in his chair, "I--so
many things have happened. You know a person can be busy and not happy."

"I know that. I was not always happy," said the girl, with the air
of making a confession. "But I liked to hear from time to time