ardly in keeping with the tone of the
_Bridge_, if you like!"

"Young Bright's article--why, Miss Loder, it was a gem! It was whimsical
in tone, I grant you, perhaps here and there a trifle frivolous, but it
was splendid in its way. It simply sparkled with wit and a kind of
delicate satire."

"You thought so? I'm afraid I didn't." Miss Loder, who at Cambridge had
been known as an excellent debater, closed the subject by her tone; and
Barry smiled quietly at her self-sufficiency.

Truth to tell, he had never much liked Miss Loder. While admitting her
absolute competency for the post--for she was in her way a brilliant
young woman--he found her unsympathetic, narrow-minded, wedded to her
own standards of thought and behaviour; and he was wont to assert that
her clear grey eye struck terror to his soul.

Miss Loder had been intended for a scholastic career: but although she
had passed through her College life with distinction, she found that
after all teaching was not her vocation.

She was absolutely devoid of patience, and wanting in the tact, the
kindly firmness, the warm sympathy, which go to equip the perfect
teacher; and although she might have a subject at her very finger-tips,
so to speak, she found it almost impossible to hand on her knowledge so
that her class might share it with her.

Once she realized the fact, Miss Loder very wisely withdrew from the
field in which she was unable to shine; and since the death of her
father had rendered it imperative that she find some remunerative work
without delay, she was glad to accept the post which Owen offered her
through a mutual friend.

Having once intended to take up journalism, she was conversant with the
mysteries of typewriting and shorthand, and her excellent classical
education rendered her particularly fitted for the post of secretary to
the editor of the _Bridge_ and his coadjutor, Barry Raymond. Her own
literary taste was admirable, if a trifle academic; and Owen found her a
really useful person with whom to discuss the various departments of his
beloved review.

In appearance, Miss Loder was of middle height, with good features, grey
eyes of an almost disconcerting frankness, and fair hair which she
parted on her forehead and coiled neatly round her head. She was
twenty-nine years of age, but looked younger; and she generally wore a
well-cut grey skirt and severely plain white shirt, which somehow suited
her rather boyish appearance.

At five o'