ur regular afternoon.'

'There is nothing regular yet. We haven't arranged our life. We are
glad to see our friends whenever they come.--Pray sit down.'

He did so, resolving to stay for a few minutes only. In the silence
that followed, their eyes met, and, as though it were too much trouble
to avert her look, Alma continued to regard him. She smiled again, and
with more meaning.

'So you have quite forgiven me?' fell from her lips, just when Harvey
was about to speak.

'As I told you at the station, I feel that there is more fault on my
side. You wrote under such a strange misconception, and I ought to have
patiently explained myself.'

'Oh no! You were quite right in treating me sharply. I don't quite
remember what I said, but I know it must have been outrageous. After
that, I did what I ought to have done before, just had a talk with
Mamma.'

'Then you took it for granted, without any evidence, that I came here
as a meddler or busybody?'

His voice was perfectly good-humoured, and Alma answered in the same
tone.

'I _thought_ there was evidence. Mamma had been talking about her
affairs, and mentioned that she had consulted you about something--Oh,
about Mrs. Abbott.'

'Very logical, I must say,' remarked Rolfe, laughing.

'I don't think logic is my strong point.'

She sat far back in the easy chair, her head supported, her hands
resting upon the chair arms. The languor which she hardly made an
effort to overcome began to invade her companion, like an influence
from the air; he gazed at her, perceiving a new beauty in the
half-upturned face, a new seductiveness in the slim, abandoned body. A
dress of grey silk, trimmed with black, refined the ivory whiteness of
her flesh; its faint rustling when she moved affected Harvey with a
delicious thrill.

'There's no reason, now,' she continued, 'why we shouldn't talk about
it--I mean, the things you discussed with Mamma. You imagine, I dare
say, that I selfishly objected to what she was doing. Nothing of the
kind. I didn't quite see why she had kept it from me, that was all. It
was as if she felt afraid of my greediness. But I'm not greedy; I don't
think I'm more selfish than ordinary people. And I think Mamma is doing
exactly what she ought; I'm very glad she felt about things in that
way.'

Harvey nodded, and spoke in a subdued voice.

'I was only consulted about one person, whom I happened to know.'

'Yes--Mrs. Abbott.'

Her eyes were again fixed upo