to dine with him."

"He is a friend of Miss Doran's, I believe?"

"I believe so."

"You accepted his invitation?"

"Yes; I am always willing to make a new acquaintance."

"A liberal frame of mind. Did he give you news of Miss Doran's health?"

"No."

He smiled mysteriously, only to appear at his ease; and Madeline,
smiling also, turned away.

Cecily reappeared this evening at the dinner-table. She was changed;
Mrs. Gluck and her guests were not again to behold the vision to which
their eyes had become accustomed; that supremacy of simple charm which
some of them had recognized as English girlhood at its best, had given
place to something less intelligible, less instant in its
attractiveness. Perhaps the climate of Naples was proving not well
suited to her.

After dinner, she and Mrs. Lessingham at once went to their private
room. Cecily sat down to write a letter. When she moved, as if the
letter were finished, her aunt looked up from a newspaper.

"I've been thinking, Cecily. Suppose we go over to Capri for a change?"

"I am quite willing, aunt."

"I think Mr. Elgar has not been there yet. He might accompany us."

Unprepared for this, Cecily murmured an assent.

"Do you know how much longer he thinks of staying in Italy?"

"We haven't spoken of it."

"Has he given up his literary projects?"

"I'm afraid we didn't speak of that either."

"Shall you be satisfied if he continues to live quite without
occupation?"

"I don't for a moment think he purposes that."

"And yet it will certainly be the ease as long as he remains here--or
wherever else we happen to be living."

Mrs. Lessingham allowed her to ponder this for a few minutes. Then she
resumed the train of thought.

"Have you had leisure yet to ask yourself, my dear, what use you will
make of the great influence you have acquired over Mr. Elgar's mind?"

"That is not quite the form my thoughts would naturally take, aunt,"
Cecily replied, with gentleness.

"Yet may it not be the form they should? You are accustomed to think
for yourself to a greater extent than girls whose education has been
more ordinary; you cannot take it ill if I remind you now of certain
remarks I have made on Mr. Elgar lately, and remind you also that I am
not alone in my view of him. Don't fear that I shall say anything
unkind; but if you feel equal to a woman's responsibilities, you must
surely exercise a woman's good sense. Let us say nothing more than that
Mr. E