supposed that we had made an impression on him!"

"I knew you were in Paris--we were in the act of talking of you," Gordon
went on. "I am very glad to see you."

Bernard had shaken hands with Angela, looking at her intently; and in
her eyes, as his own met them, it seemed to him that there was a gleam
of mockery. At whom was she mocking--at Gordon, or at himself? Bernard
was uncomfortable enough not to care to be mocked; but he felt even more
sorry that Gordon should be.

"We also knew you were coming--Mr. Longueville had told us," said Mrs.
Vivian; "and we have been expecting the pleasure of seeing Blanche. Dear
little Blanche!"

"Dear little Blanche will immediately come and see you," Gordon replied.

"Immediately, we hope," said Mrs. Vivian. "We shall be so very glad."
Bernard perceived that she wished to say something soothing and
sympathetic to poor Gordon; having it, as he supposed, on her
conscience that, after having once encouraged him to regard himself
as indispensable (in the capacity of son-in-law) to her happiness,
she should now present to him the spectacle of a felicity which had
established itself without his aid. "We were so very much interested in
your marriage," she went on. "We thought it so--so delightful."

Gordon fixed his eyes on the ground for a moment.

"I owe it partly to you," he answered. "You had done so much for
Blanche. You had so cultivated her mind and polished her manners that
her attractions were doubled, and I fell an easy victim to them."

He uttered these words with an exaggerated solemnity, the result of
which was to produce, for a moment, an almost embarrassing silence.
Bernard was rapidly becoming more and more impatient of his own
embarrassment, and now he exclaimed, in a loud and jovial voice--

"Blanche makes victims by the dozen! I was a victim last winter; we are
all victims!"

"Dear little Blanche!" Mrs. Vivian murmured again.

Angela had said nothing; she had simply stood there, making no attempt
to address herself to Gordon, and yet with no affectation of reserve or
of indifference. Now she seemed to feel the impulse to speak to him.

"When Blanche comes to see us, you must be sure to come with her," she
said, with a friendly smile.

Gordon looked at her, but he said nothing.

"We were so sorry to hear she is out of health," Angela went on.

Still Gordon was silent, with his eyes fixed on her expressive and
charming face.

"It is not serious," he murm