, wondering at the change which had come over
this pretty but elusive young lady.

"Well, Mr. Bremner,--I see you reading very often. I came across to
inquire if you could favour me with something in the book line to wile
away an hour or so."

"With pleasure," I answered.

"Mr. Horsfal, my employer, has a well-stocked little library here and
you are very welcome to read anything in it you may fancy. Will you
come inside?"

She looked up shyly, then her curiosity got the mastery.

"Why, yes!" she cried, jumping up. "I shall be delighted."

I led the way into the front room, fixing the lamp and causing a flood
of mellow light to suffuse the darkness in there. I went over and
threw aside the curtains that hid the book-shelves.

"You have a lovely place here," she exclaimed, looking round in
admiration. "I had no idea ... no idea----"

"--That a bachelor could make himself so comfortable," I put in.

"Exactly! Do you mind if I take a peek around?" she asked, laughing.

"Not a bit!"

She "peeked around" and satisfied her curiosity to the full.

"I am convinced," she said at last, "that in all this domestic artistry
there is the touch of a feminine hand. Who was, or who is,--the lady?"

"I understand Mrs. Horsfal furnished and arranged this home. She lived
here every summer before she died. That made it very easy for me. All
I had to do was to keep everything in its place as she had left it."

Miss Grant was enraptured with the library. I thought she would never
finish scanning the titles and the authors.

"This is a positive book-wormery," she exclaimed.

She chose a volume which revealed her very masculine taste in
literature, although, after all, it did not astonish me greatly but
merely confirmed what I already had known to be so;--that, while boys
and men scorn to read girls' and women's books, yet girls and women
seem to prefer the books that are written more especially for boys and
men and the more those books revel and riot in sword play, impossible
adventure and intrigue, the more they like them.

"Might I ask if you would be so good as to return my visit?" said my
visitor at last. "You saved my life, you know, and you have some right
to take a small friendly interest in me.

"If you could spare the time, I should be pleased to have you over for
tea to-morrow evening and to spend a sociable hour with us
afterwards;--that is, if you care for tea, sociability and--music."

I looked ac