med. Come, tell me what you have been doing
this long time. You have seen Greece too. I must go to Greece--perhaps
before the end of this year. I'll make a knapsack ramble: Greece,
Egypt, Asia Minor, Constantinople."

Miriam kept silence, and her brother appeared to forget that he had
said anything that required an answer. Presently he released her hand,
after patting it, and moved restlessly in his chair; then he looked at
his watch, and compared it curiously with the clock on the mantelpiece.

"Ciss," he began suddenly, and at once with a laugh corrected
himself--"Miriam, I mean."

"What?"

"I forget what I was going to say," he muttered, after delaying. "But
that reminds me; I've been anxious lest you should misunderstand what I
said yesterday. You didn't think I wished to make charges against
Cecily?"

"It's difficult to understand you," was all she replied.

"But you mustn't think that I misjudge her. Cecily has more than
realized all I imagined her to be. There are few women living who could
be called her equals. I say this in the gravest conviction; this is the
simple result of my knowledge of her. She has an exquisite nature, an
admirable mind. I have never heard her speak a sentence that was
unworthy of her, not one!"

His voice trembled with earnestness. Miriam looked at from under her
eyebrows.

"If any one," he pursued, "ever threw doubt on the perfect uprightness
of Cecily's conduct, her absolute honour, I would gage my life upon the
issue."

And in this moment he spoke with sincerity, whatever the mental process
which had brought him to such an utterance. Even Miriam could not doubt
him. His clenched fist quivered as it lay on his knee, and the gleam of
firelight showed that his eves were moist.

"Why do you say this?" his sister asked, still scrutinizing him.

"To satisfy myself; to make you understand once for all what I _do_
believe. Have you any other opinion of her, Miriam?"

She gave a simple negative.

"I am not saying this," he pursued, "in the thought that you will
perhaps repeat it to her some day. It is for my own satisfaction. If I
could put it more strongly, I would; but I will have nothing to do with
exaggerations. The truth is best expressed in the simplest words."

"What do you mean by honour?" Miriam inquired, when there had been a
short silence.

"Honour?"

"Your definitions are not generally those accepted by most people."

"I hope not." He smiled. "But you know su