r face softened. It was a high-bred face, not
always as gentle as it was now, but her smile was charming.

"You do not look like the little, wan boy I saw that morning in bed, so
long ago. Do you remember?"

"I should say I did. I think I should have died that morning but for
you. I have never forgotten it a moment since." The rising color in his
cheeks took away the baldness of the speech.

She bowed with the most gracious smile, the color stealing up into her
cheeks and making her look younger.

"I am not used to such compliments. Young men nowadays do not take the
trouble to flatter old ladies."

Her face, though faded, still bore the unmistakable stamp of
distinction. Calm, gray eyes and a strong mouth and chin recalled
Norman's face. The daintiest of caps rested on her gray hair like a
crown, and several little ringlets about her ears gave the charm of
quaintness to the patrician face. Her voice was deep and musical. When
she first spoke it was gracious rather than cordial; but after the
inspective look she had given him it softened, and from this time Keith
felt her warmth.

The easy, cordial, almost confidential manner in which she soon began to
talk to him made Keith feel as if they had been friends always, and in a
moment, in response to a question from her, he was giving quite frankly
his impression of the big city: of its brilliance, its movement, its
rush, that keyed up the nerves like the sweep of a swift torrent.

"It almost takes my breath away," he said. "I feel as if I were on the
brink of a torrent and had an irresistible desire to jump into it and
swim against it."

She looked at the young man in silence for a moment, enjoying his
sparkling eyes, and then her face grew grave.

"Yes, it is interesting to get the impression made on a fresh young
mind. But so many are dashed to pieces, it appears to me of late to be a
maelstrom that engulfs everything in its resistless and terrible sweep.
Fortune, health, peace, reputation, all are caught and swept away; but
the worst is its heartlessness--and its emptiness."

She sighed so deeply that the young man wondered what sorrow could touch
her, intrenched and enthroned in that beautiful mansion, surrounded by
all that wealth and taste and affection could give. Years afterwards,
that picture of the old-time gentlewoman in her luxurious home came
back to him.

Just then a cheery voice was heard calling outside:

"Cousin?--cousin?--Matildy Carroll, w