perficial,
most unimportant of all possible relations.

Olive Chancellor watched Henry Burrage very closely that evening; she
had a special reason for doing so, and her entertainment, during the
successive hours, was derived much less from the delicate little feast
over which this insinuating proselyte presided, in the brilliant public
room of the establishment, where French waiters flitted about on deep
carpets and parties at neighbouring tables excited curiosity and
conjecture, or even from the magnificent music of _Lohengrin_, than from
a secret process of comparison and verification, which shall presently
be explained to the reader. As some discredit has possibly been thrown
upon her impartiality it is a pleasure to be able to say that on her
return from the opera she took a step dictated by an earnest
consideration of justice--of the promptness with which Verena had told
her of the note left by Basil Ransom in the afternoon. She drew Verena
into her room with her. The girl, on the way back to Tenth Street, had
spoken only of Wagner's music, of the singers, the orchestra, the
immensity of the house, her tremendous pleasure. Olive could see how
fond she might become of New York, where that kind of pleasure was so
much more in the air.

"Well, Mr. Burrage was certainly very kind to us--no one could have been
more thoughtful," Olive said; and she coloured a little at the look with
which Verena greeted this tribute of appreciation from Miss Chancellor
to a single gentleman.

"I am so glad you were struck with that, because I do think we have been
a little rough to him." Verena's _we_ was angelic. "He was particularly
attentive to you, my dear; he has got over me. He looked at you so
sweetly. Dearest Olive, if you marry him----!" And Miss Tarrant, who was
in high spirits, embraced her companion, to check her own silliness.

"He wants you to stay there, all the same. They haven't given _that_
up," Olive remarked, turning to a drawer, out of which she took a
letter.

"Did he tell you that, pray? He said nothing more about it to me."

"When we came in this afternoon I found this note from Mrs. Burrage. You
had better read it." And she presented the document, open, to Verena.

The purpose of it was to say that Mrs. Burrage could really not
reconcile herself to the loss of Verena's visit, on which both she and
her son had counted so much. She was sure they would be able to make it
as interesting to Miss Tarrant as it