te of uncertainty. Just give me a word
of hope, however slight, and I will be satisfied."

Hadria looked astonished. "Have you really taken in what I have just
said?"

"Every word of it."

"And you realise that I mean it, _mean_ it, with every fibre of me."

"I understand; and I repeat that I shall not be happy until you are my
wife. Have what ideas you please, only be my wife."

She gazed at him in puzzled scrutiny. "You don't think I am really in
earnest. Let us go."

"I know you are in earnest," he cried, eagerly following her, "and still
I----"

At that moment Harold Wilkins came up to claim Hadria for a promised
dance. Temperley gave a gesture of impatience. But Harold insisted, and
Hadria walked with her partner into the hall where Mrs. Gordon was now
playing a sentimental waltz, with considerable poetic license as to
time. As everyone said: Mrs. Gordon played with so much expression.

Temperley stood about in corners watching Hadria. She was flushed and
silent, dancing with a still gliding movement under the skilful guidance
of her partner.

Temperley tried to win a glance as she passed round, but her eyes were
resolutely fixed on the floor.

Algitha followed her sister's movements uneasily. She had noticed her
absence during the last reel, and observed that Temperley also was not
to be seen. She felt anxious. She knew Hadria's emotional
susceptibility. She knew Temperley's convincing faculty, and also
Hadria's uneasy feeling that she had done wrong in allowing the
practices to be resumed.

Henriette had not failed to notice the signs of the times, and she
annoyed Algitha beyond endurance by her obviously sisterly manner of
addressing the family. She had taken to calling the boys by their first
names.

Fred shared his sister's dislike to Henriette. "Tact!" he cried with a
snort, "why a Temperley rushes in where a bull in a china-shop would
fear to tread!"

Algitha saw that Hubert was again by Hadria's side before the evening
was out. The latter looked white, and she avoided her sister's glance.
This last symptom seemed to Algitha the worst.

"What's the matter with Hadria?" asked Fred, "she will scarcely speak to
me. I was just telling her the best joke I've heard this year, and, will
you believe me, she didn't see the point! Yes, you may well stare! I
tried again and she gave a nervous giggle; I am relating to you the
exact truth. Do any of the epidemics come on like that?"

"Yes, one of the