a.'"

"You noticed that?"

"Yes."

Meanwhile, the man was thinking, "How can I get away unsuspected?" and
the woman, "How can I make him tell me?"

They talked some time longer; then Adelaide made up her mind to go into
action.

_Adelaide_ (quietly). "There is a change in you, Stephen. I want you to
tell me the cause."

_Stephen._ "We all change as time moves on."

_Adelaide._ "But this is something different. I have noticed--"

_Stephen._ "What?"

_Adelaide._ "No one observes you so closely as I do, Stephen: my life is
bound up in yours; your interests are mine. Anything that is for your
happiness engrosses me; anything that threatens it disturbs me. Let us
speak plainly, then: you are interested in Honor Dooris."

_Stephen._ "I am."

_Adelaide._ "More than that--you love her."

_Stephen._ "What is love, Adelaide?"

_Adelaide_ (with emotion). "It was Ralph's feeling for me, Stephen. He
is gone, but I have the warm memory in my heart. Somebody loved me once,
and with all his soul." (Leaning forward with tears in her eyes:) "Take
this young girl, Stephen; yes, take her. She will give you what you have
never had in your life, poor fellow!--real happiness."

Wainwright was silent.

_Adelaide._ "Ah! I have known it a long time. You spent the whole of
last summer here; what did that mean? You wrote to her at intervals all
through the winter. You are here again. You love to study her girlish
heart, to open the doors of her mind." (Rapidly:) "And have I not helped
you? I have, I have. Was I not the quiet listener to all those first
guarded descriptions of yours? Did I not comment upon each and every
word of those careful little letters of hers, and follow every
possibility of their meaning out to its fullest extent? All this to
please _you_. But, when I came here and saw the child with my own eyes,
did I not at once range myself really upon your side? Have I not had
her here? Did I not form a close acquaintance with her family? Did I not
give you those morning hours with her at the library? And am I not here
also to answer for her, to describe her to your friends, to uphold your
choice, to bring out and develop her striking beauty?"

_Stephen._ "But she is not beautiful."

_Adelaide._ "She is. Let me dress her once or twice, and New York shall
rave over her. I have had your interests all the time at heart, Stephen.
Was it not I who sent for John Royce? And did you not see why I sent for
him? It was to tr