he two spent hours together,
sometimes, in the tiny parlor, stumbling over Berlin wool difficulties,
and now and then wandering to and fro, conversationally, from Priscilla
to the octagon-stitch, and from the octagon-stitch to Denis.

Priscilla was prone to reserve, and rarely joined them in their talks;
and, besides, she was so often busy, that if she had felt the
inclination to do so, she had not time to indulge it. But she was even
more silent than she had seemed at first, Theo thought, and she was sure
her pale, handsome face was paler, though, of course, that was easily to
be accounted for by her lover's absence.

She was a singular girl this Priscilla Gower. The first time Theo ever
saw her display an interest in anybody, or in anything, was when she
first heard Pamela's love-story mentioned.

She was sitting at work near them, when Theo chanced to mention Arthur
Brunwalde, and, to her surprise, Priscilla looked up from her desk
immediately.

"He was your sister's lover, was he not?" she said, with an abrupt
interest in the subject.

"Yes," answered Theo; "but he died, you know."

Priscilla nodded.

"The week before their wedding-day," she said. "Mr. Oglethorpe told me
so."

Theo answered in the affirmative again.

"And poor Pam could not forget him," she added, her usual tender
reverence for poor Pam showing itself in her sorrowing voice. "She was
very pretty then, and Lady Throckmorton was angry because she would not
marry anybody else; but Pamela never cared for anybody else."

Priscilla got up from her chair, and, coming to the hearth, leaned
against the low mantel, pen in hand. She looked down on Theodora North
with a curious expression in her cold, handsome eyes.

"Is your sister like you?" she asked.

Her tone was such a strange one that Theo lifted her face with a faint,
startled look.

"No," she replied, almost timidly. "Pamela is fairer than I am, and not
so tall. We are not alike at all."

"I was not thinking of that," said Priscilla. "I was wondering if you
were alike in disposition. I think I was wondering most whether you
would be as faithful as Pamela."

"That is a strange question," Miss Elizabeth interposed. "Theodora has
not been tried."

But Priscilla was looking straight at Theo's downcast eyes.

"But I think Theodora knows," she said, briefly. "Are you like your
sister in that, Theodora? I remember hearing Mr. Oglethorpe say once you
would be."

Theo dropped her ivory