l head very near my shoulder. Oh, I had need of all
my strength, of all my common-sense.

"Dear Isobel," I said, looking straight ahead of me out of the cab, "I
cannot make you any promise. All must depend upon what Monsieur
Feurgeres tells us to-night. Nothing would make me--all of us--happier
than to keep you with us always. But it may not be our duty to keep you,
or yours to stay. Until we have heard Feurgeres' story we are in the
dark."

She shrank, as it seemed, into herself. Her eyes followed mine
hauntingly.

"Arnold," she said, with a little tremor in her tone, "you are not very
kind to me to-night, and I feel--that I want--people to be kind to me
just now."

I bent down, and I raised her hands to my lips and kissed them.

"My dear child," I said, "don't forget that I am your guardian, and I
have to think for you--a long way ahead. As for the rest, I have not a
single thought or hope in life which is not concerned for your
happiness."

"I like that better," she murmured; "but--you are very fond of my
hands."

Fortunately the cab pulled up with a jerk. I paid the man, and we
commenced to climb up the stone steps towards our rooms. Isobel, who was
generally a couple of flights ahead, slipped her hand through my arm and
leaned heavily upon me.

"Arnold," she whispered, "why would you not read your story to me. Tell
me, please!"

"My dear child!" I exclaimed, "what made you think of that just now?"

She leaned forward. I think that she was trying to look into my face.

"Never mind! Please tell me," she begged.

"I will read it some day," I answered. "It is so incomplete. I think I
shall have to rewrite it."

She shook her head.

"You have always read to me before just as you have written it. I think
that you are not quite so nice to me, Arnold, as you were. I haven't
done anything that you do not like, have I? Because I am sure that you
are different!"

"You absurd child," I answered, smiling at her as cheerfully as I could.
"You are in an imaginative frame of mind to-night."

"It is not that! You look at me differently, you do not seem to want to
have me with you so much, and----"

I stopped her. We had reached the fourth floor, where our apartments
were. With the key in the lock I turned and faced her for a moment. She
was as tall as I, and a certain grace of carriage which she had always
possessed, and which had grown with her years, redeemed her completely
from the _gaucherie_ of her unco