"Is this the end of the shop?" some one asked.

"I trust not. I have no idea of giving up, unless you drive me away,"
Norah answered.

Perhaps the only person present who was greatly surprised was Mrs.
Millard. She had planned her little scene with some care, anticipating
just such a gathering in honor of her return. To have the title
role--as it were--snatched from her in the moment of triumph was
annoying. But whatever her faults, Mrs. Millard was a lady, and as
such she accepted the situation. She said little, but what she said
was graceful and to the point. The eccentricity of the whole thing
was, it seemed to her, sufficient excuse for her attitude, which, now
she understood, she regretted.

"Did you want anything in particular of me, Norah?" Alex asked as they
were leaving.

"Yes," was the answer. "I want you to be my partner."

"Norah!" Alex cried. "You know I'll be glad, glad to be; but, oh, I am
sorry for you, if you must lose Marion."

CHAPTER THIRTIETH

CHANGES

"Was I not right to come? You said a year, and that is over."

"I did not expect you so soon." Marion smiled over the great bunch of
wild sunflowers she held. Coming in a few minutes earlier she had
found Francis Landor pacing impatiently back and forth. Something,
perhaps it was the unexpectedness of it, made her a trifle stately.

It seemed to Francis that those flaunting yellow flowers made a
barrier between them. "It was only by chance I found you. Charlotte
gave me a hint. How long did you intend to leave me in uncertainty?
Was it quite fair?"

"I have been in uncertainty myself; happily my fears have not been
realized. I did what seemed best at the time, and please remember the
year is only just over." Marion looked at him gravely from behind her
flowery screen.

"I did not mean to begin by reproaching you," he said, drawing
nearer. "But you cannot realize what it has meant to be left in
complete ignorance. Even now I don't understand why you are here." He
glanced about the room.

"Norah Pennington and I are living here, earning our daily
bread--really doing it,"--she laughed a little; "and, as you see, it
has made me over. It was Norah's plan, and you can see how we were
obliged to keep it to ourselves, if it was to be carried out. I had to
cut loose from everything,--the suspense about my eyes was killing me.
Of course, looking back, it seems needless; but one cannot argue with
nerves."

She paused a moment, then c