ccepted him as a brother-in-law, for the harm such a
relation could do one was limited and definite; whereas in his general
capacity of being at large in her life the ability of the young
Mississippian to injure her seemed somehow immense. "I wrote to
him--that time--for a perfectly definite reason," she said. "I thought
mother would have liked us to know him. But it was a mistake."

"How do you know it was a mistake? Mother would have liked him, I
daresay."

"I mean my acting as I did; it was a theory of duty which I allowed to
press me too much. I always do. Duty should be obvious; one shouldn't
hunt round for it."

"Was it very obvious when it brought you on here?" asked Mrs. Luna, who
was distinctly out of humour.

Olive looked for a moment at the toe of her shoe. "I had an idea that
you would have married him by this time," she presently remarked.

"Marry him yourself, my dear! What put such an idea into your head?"

"You wrote to me at first so much about him. You told me he was
tremendously attentive, and that you liked him."

"His state of mind is one thing and mine is another. How can I marry
every man that hangs about me--that dogs my footsteps? I might as well
become a Mormon at once!" Mrs. Luna delivered herself of this argument
with a certain charitable air, as if her sister could not be expected to
understand such a situation by her own light.

Olive waived the discussion, and simply said: "I took for granted _you_
had got him the invitation."

"I, my dear? That would be quite at variance with my attitude of
discouragement."

"Then she simply sent it herself."

"Whom do you mean by 'she'?"

"Mrs. Burrage, of course."

"I thought that you might mean Verena," said Mrs. Luna casually.

"Verena--to him? Why in the world----?" And Olive gave the cold glare
with which her sister was familiar.

"Why in the world not--since she knows him?"

"She had seen him twice in her life before last night, when she met him
for the third time and spoke to him."

"Did she tell you that?"

"She tells me everything."

"Are you very sure?"

"Adeline Luna, what _do_ you mean?" Miss Chancellor murmured.

"Are you very sure that last night was only the third time?" Mrs. Luna
went on.

Olive threw back her head and swept her sister from her bonnet to her
lowest flounce. "You have no right to hint at such a thing as that
unless you know!"

"Oh, I know--I know, at any rate, more than you do!" And then Mrs.