who were in the habit of reading in his
room, were accustomed to open and enter at will, without the formality
of knocking.

A moment later, some one confidently turned the door-knob. Instantly
Duncan realized the situation and came to his senses. He abandoned his
purpose of writing to Barbara, as an absurdity, and promptly unlocked
the door to the visitor, making some sort of excuse for his
forgetfulness in having fastened it.

When he called upon Barbara the next evening, and asked her to attend
the dance under his escort, her astonishment was manifest, in spite of
her best endeavors to conceal it. She had never before been invited to
such a function, and she had not dreamed of this. That, however, was not
her greatest occasion for surprise. In her modesty she had never thought
of herself as in any way the fellow or equal of the other girls in town,
who were eagerly invited to attend everything in the way of
entertainments. If any other young man in town had asked her to be his
partner on this occasion, she would have regarded the occurrence as a
surprising one; to be asked by Guilford Duncan was more astonishing than
all. She knew the high place he had won for himself in Cairo. She knew
that he was everywhere regarded as altogether the superior of all the
other young men intellectually, morally, socially, and in all other
ways. She regarded him as an aristocrat among men, a man who had always
held aloof from the society around him, as if it were quite unworthy of
his attention. She had woman's instinct enough, too, to know how greatly
honored any other girl in the city would feel if asked by him to any
function. The fact that he had asked her instead of some other, puzzled
her almost to bewilderment.

At first she gave him no answer. She was obviously thinking, and Duncan
let her think on. He thought she looked exceedingly pretty while
thinking. He observed a slight puckering of her forehead at the time,
which seemed to him to add interest to her face. After a little she aid:

"Thank you, Mr. Duncan, for your invitation. I am more pleased with it
than I can say. But I think I must ask you to excuse me. I think I can't
possibly go to the dance."

"May I ask why not? Do you not care for dancing and society?"

"Oh, I care very much--or, rather," she added, with scrupulous fidelity
to truth--"I should care very much to attend this party--I should enjoy
it more than anything, but----"

"Will you think me impertin