me, if I came across
them, to be civil to Mrs. Maddison and her daughter, and I have done
nothing but pay them the most ordinary attentions."

"When a man is in love he pays no ordinary attentions. He has eyes for
no one but the lady." The General's umbrella, as it descended from the
face of Andrew Jackson and rattled on the flagged path, supplied each
word with emphasis. "However, it is no good talking, and I don't exactly
know why I should put my old oar in. But the fact is I feel a certain
responsibility. People here have been uncommonly civil. Well,
well!--I've wired to-day to ask if there is a berth left in the
_Venetia_ for Saturday. And you, I suppose"--the inquiry was somewhat
peremptory--"will be going back to New York?"

"I have no intention of leaving Washington just yet," said Roger, with
decision.

"And may I ask what you intend to do here?"

Roger laughed. "I really think that's my business. However, you've been
an awful brick, Uncle Archie, to stay on like this. I assure you, if I
don't say much, I think it."

By this time they had reached the hotel, the steps and hall of which
were full of people.

"That's how you put me off." The General's tone was resentful. "And you
won't give me any idea of the line I am to take with your mother?"

The young man smiled again and waved an evasive hand.

"If you'll only be patient a little longer, Uncle Archie----"

At this point an acquaintance of the General's who was smoking in the
hall came forward to greet him, and Roger made his escape.

* * * * *

"Well, what the deuce _do_ I mean to do?" Barnes asked himself the
question deliberately. He was hanging out of the window, in his bedroom,
smoking and pondering.

It was a mild and rainy night. Washington was full of the earth and leaf
odours of the spring, which rose in gusts from its trees and gardens;
and rugged, swiftly moving clouds disclosed every now and then what
looked like hurrying stars.

The young man was excited and on edge. Daphne Floyd--and the thought of
Daphne Floyd--had set his pulses hammering; they challenged in him the
aggressive, self-assertive, masculine force. The history of the
preceding three weeks was far from simple. He had first paid a
determined court to her, conducting it in an orthodox, English,
conspicuous way. His mother, and her necessities--his own also--imposed
it on him; and he flung himself into it, setting his teeth. Then, to his
a