she spoke--

"I hope you are not angry with me, Mr. Harley, but--but perhaps you do
not know that I am engaged to be married, and so ... so I don't think
I should accept invitations from any one else, though--though it was
kind of you to ask me," she added.

"I should have been delighted if you could have come," he said. "But,
of course, if your fiance would not care about it----" He broke off as
if there was nothing more to be said.

Esther wondered if Raymond really would mind; at first he had been
very jealous, and could not bear her to speak to another man, but
latterly--she hated it, because she could not forget that once he had
told her she could marry a man with money if she only played her cards
carefully--the man who had said that seemed a different personality
altogether from the man whose letters she had only lived for during
the last fortnight.

Was she mean and unforgiving that she continually found herself
remembering the quarrels and scenes they had had? She wanted so
earnestly to forget them; she went up to June's room with dragging
steps.

The door of the room opened before she reached the landing, and June
came out.

"I knew it was you," she said. "Poor soul! how tired you sound.
Another day of miserable failure, I suppose. Never mind, come and sit
down in the warm, and you'll soon forget it."

Esther laughed rather shamefacedly.

"It's been a day of success, strange to relate," she said. "But I'm
tired, dead tired--I must have walked miles." She suddenly remembered
Micky; she looked round with--a quick suspicion. "Have you been alone
all the afternoon?" she asked.

"Yes, quite alone," June laughed. "Who did you expect to find here,
pray?" she demanded.

"Nobody--I only wondered if you had had any visitors."

"I might have known it wasn't the truth that he was coming here," she
told herself vexedly.

"Well, and what about the success?" June asked; she was sitting on the
hearthrug stroking Charlie. "You don't mean to say that the old dear
at the agency really had something to offer you this time?"

Esther nodded.

"Yes, and she's desperately anxious for me to take it, too. It's quite
a good offer, but it means leaving here and living in; and I don't
believe I want to leave here," she added ruefully.

June looked dismayed.

"I shan't let you go," she said promptly. "Just as we are settling
down so cosily." She put her white hands over her ears. "No, I don't
want to hear another thi