on his sister's shoulder.

How many holy memories rushed like a flood over her heart and soul,
burying for a time the bitter experience of to-day!

Unable to conclude the song, she leaned back in her chair, and gave
way to the tears that rolled swiftly down her cheeks.

So wan and hopeless was her face that Mr. Palma, watching her from
the curtained alcove, came quickly forward.

He was elegantly dressed in full evening toilette, and, throwing his
white gloves on the table, approached his ward.

At sight of him she started up, and hastily wiped away the tears that
obstinately dripped despite her efforts.

"Oh, sir! I hoped you would forget to come home, and would go to Mrs.
Tarrant's. I did not know you were in the house."

"I never forget my duties, and though I am going to Mrs. Tarrant's
after a while, I attend to 'business before pleasure'; it has been my
lifelong habit."

His new suit of black, and the white vest and cravat were singularly
becoming to him. He was aware of the fact; and even in the midst of
her anxiety and depression, Regina thought she had never seen him
look so handsome.

"I wish to ask you a few questions. Was it actual bodily sickness,
physical pain, that kept you in your room during dinner, at which I
particularly desired your attendance?"

"I cannot say that it was."

"You had no fever, no headache, no fainting-spell?"

"No, sir."

"Then why did you absent yourself?"

"I felt unhappy, and shrank from seeing any one: especially strange
guests."

"Unhappy? About what?"

"My heart ached, and I wished to be alone."

"Heart-ache, so early? However, you are in your seventeenth year,
quite old enough, I suppose, for the premonitory symptoms. What gave
you heart-ache?"

She was silent.

"You feared my displeasure, knowing I had cause to feel offended,
when making a pretence of deferring to my wishes, you hurried away
from my office, just as I was returning to it? Why did you not wait?"

"I was afraid you would refuse your permission, and I wanted so very
much to go to Mrs. Mason's."

Above all other virtues he reverenced and admired stern unvarnished
truth, and this strong element of her reticent nature had powerfully
attracted him.

"Little girl, am I such a stony-hearted ogre?" A strangely genial
smile wanned and brightened his usually grave cold face, and
certainly at that moment Erle Palma showed one aspect of his nature
never exhibited before to any human being.