lushed when she first saw him at
Blanquais. She seemed to Bernard now to have a great and peculiar
brightness--something she had never had before.

"I certainly have been looking for you," he said. "I was greatly
disappointed when I found you had taken flight from Blanquais."

"Taken flight?" She repeated his words as she had repeated her mother's.
"That is also a strange way of speaking!"

"I don't care what I say," said Bernard, "so long as I make you
understand that I have wanted very much to see you again, and that I
have wondered every day whether I might venture--"

"I don't know why you should n't venture!" she interrupted, giving her
little laugh again. "We are not so terrible, are we, mamma?--that is,
when once you have climbed our five flights of stairs."

"I came up very fast," said Bernard, "and I find your apartment
magnificent."

"Mr. Longueville must come again, must he not, dear?" asked mamma.

"I shall come very often, with your leave," Bernard declared.

"It will be immensely kind," said Angela, looking away.

"I am not sure that you will think it that."

"I don't know what you are trying to prove," said Angela; "first that we
ran away from you, and then that we are not nice to our visitors."

"Oh no, not that!" Bernard exclaimed; "for I assure you I shall not care
how cold you are with me."

She walked away toward another door, which was masked with a curtain
that she lifted.

"I am glad to hear that, for it gives me courage to say that I am very
tired, and that I beg you will excuse me."

She glanced at him a moment over her shoulder; then she passed out,
dropping the curtain.

Bernard stood there face to face with Mrs. Vivian, whose eyes seemed to
plead with him more than ever. In his own there was an excited smile.

"Please don't mind that," she murmured. "I know it 's true that she is
tired."

"Mind it, dear lady?" cried the young man. "I delight in it. It 's just
what I like."

"Ah, she 's very peculiar!" sighed Mrs. Vivian.

"She is strange--yes. But I think I understand her a little."

"You must come back to-morrow, then."

"I hope to have many to-morrows!" cried Bernard as he took his
departure.

CHAPTER XXIII

And he had them in fact. He called the next day at the same hour, and he
found the mother and the daughter together in their pretty salon. Angela
was very gentle and gracious; he suspected Mrs. Vivian had given her a
tender little lecture upon the