.42 train will soon be in." And
he sat down again beside me.

"What shall we talk about, then?" I asked, trying to keep my head.
A maddening sensation of excitement made my voice sound strained.
"First, I want to tell you how beautiful I find my room. If you had
known my taste, and had it done to please me, you could not have found
anything I should like so much."

"I did know your taste, and I had it done to please you. It is for
you. No one else shall ever sleep there," he said, simply, and looked
deep into my eyes.

I had nothing to say.

"I like to know there is a room for you in my house. I want everything
in it to be exactly as you desire. When you have time to look, I
think you will find some agreeable books, and your old friends La
Rochefoucauld, etc. But if there is a thing you want changed, it would
give me pleasure to change it."

I was stupefied. I could not speak.

"Over the mantel-piece is the little pastel by La Tour I told you I
bought last year."

"Oh! it is good of you!" I managed to say.

"I have at least the satisfaction of knowing that I please myself
too if it gives you pleasure. I want you to feel there is one corner
in the world where you are really at home with the things that are
sympathetic to you, so that whenever you will come over like this it
will give you a feeling of repose."

"Oh! it is dear of you!"

"You said the other day," he continued, "that I, at all events, was
never serious, and I told you I would tell you that when you came here
to Dane Mount. Well, I tell you now--I am serious in this--that if
there is anything in the world I can do to make you happy I will do
it."

"It makes me happy to know you understand--that there is some one of
my kin. Oh! I have been very lonely since grandmamma died!"

He looked at me long, and we neither of us spoke.

"It was a very cruel turn of fate that we did not meet this time last
year," he said at last.

"Yes."

"Comtesse, I want to make your life happier. I want to introduce you
to several nice women I know. I shall have a big party next month.
Will you come and stay again? Then you will gradually get a pleasant
society round you, and you need not trouble about the Dodds and the
Springers--no, Springle was their name, wasn't it?"

"Yes. It is so kind of you, all this thought for me. Oh, Sir Antony, I
have nothing to say!" I faltered.

He frowned.

"Do not call me _Sir_ Antony, child. It hurts me. You must not
forget