that the mood was not a happy one.

"I am very sorry," she said, looking up at him, and speaking in a low,
musical voice, but with the unembarrassed frankness of a child. "I
really wasn't thinking or looking; it was very careless of me."

Brian of course took all the blame to himself, and apologized profusely;
but though he would have given much to detain her, if only a moment, she
gave him no opportunity, but with a slight inclination passed rapidly
on. He stood quite still, watching her till she was out of sight, aware
of a sudden change in his life. He was a busy hard-working man, not at
all given to dreams, and it was no dream that he was in now. He knew
perfectly well that he had met his ideal, had spoken to her and she to
him; that somehow in a single moment a new world had opened out to him.
He had fallen in love.

The trifling occurrence had made no great impression on the "little
girl" herself. She was rather vexed with herself for the carelessness,
but a much deeper trouble was filling her heart. She soon forgot the
passing interruption and the brown-bearded man with the pleasant gray
eyes who had apologized for what was quite her fault. Something had
gone wrong that day, as Brian had surmised; the eyes grew brighter, the
carnation flush deepened as she hurried along, the delicate lips
closed with a curiously hard expression, the hands were clasped with
unnecessary tightness round the umbrella.

She passed up Guilford Square, but did not turn into any of the old
decayed houses; her home was far less imposing. At the corner of the
square there is a narrow opening which leads into a sort of blind alley
paved with grim flagstones. Here, facing a high blank wall, are four
or five very dreary houses. She entered one of these, put down her wet
umbrella in the shabby little hall, and opened the door of a barely
furnished room, the walls of which were, however, lined with books.
Beside the fire was the one really comfortable piece of furniture in the
room, an Ikeley couch, and upon it lay a very wan-looking invalid, who
glanced up with a smile of welcome. "Why, Erica, you are home early
today. How is that?"

"Oh, I don't know," said Erica, tossing down her books in a way which
showed her mother that she was troubled about something. "I suppose I
tore along at a good rate, and there was no temptation to stay at the
High School."

"Come and tell me about it," said the mother, gently, "what has gone
wrong, little