so trusted you; so _believed_ in you! A less scrupulously
honourable man than Kenrick, might have tried to bind you by a promise,
before he was in a position to offer you immediate marriage. Think of
all the hopes--the hopes and p-_plans_, which depend upon your
faithfulness!" Miss Ann dissolved into tears--but not to a degree
which should hinder her flow of eloquence. "Ah, sweetest child! You
knelt beside this _very_ sofa, five years ago, and you said: 'Ann, I
think _any_ woman might be proud to become the wife of the Professor!'
Have you forgotten that you said that, kneeling beside this _very_
sofa?"

"I have not forgotten," said Miss Charteris; "and I think so still."

"Then you _will_ marry Kenrick?" said Miss Ann, through her tears.

Christobel Charteris rose. She stood, for a moment, tall and
immovable, in the small, low room, crowded with knick-knacks--china,
bric-a-brac, ferns in painted pots, embroidery, photograph
frames--overseated with easy chairs, which, in their turn, were
overfilled with a varied assortment of cushions. Miss Ann's
drawing-room gave the effect of a rather prettily arranged bazaar. You
mentally pictured yourself walking round, admiring everything, but
seeing nothing you liked quite well enough to wish to buy it, and take
it home.

Christobel Charteris, tall and stately, in her simple white gown,
looked so utterly apart from the trumpery elegance of these
surroundings. As the Boy had said, the mellow beauty of his ancestral
homes would indeed be a fit setting for her stately grace. But she had
sent away the Boy, with his beautiful castles in the air, and places in
the shires. The atmosphere and surroundings of Shiloh were those to
which she must be willing to bend her fastidious taste. Miss Ann would
expect to make her home with the Professor.

"Then you _will_ marry Kenrick?" whispered Miss Ann, through her lace
pocket-handkerchief.

Christobel bent over her, tenderly; fastening the clasp of the
mysterious hair-brooch.

"Dear Ann," she said. "It will not be leap year again, until 1912.
And, meanwhile, the Professor has not proposed marriage to me."

Miss Ann instantly brightened. Laughing gaily, she wiped away a few
remaining tears.

"Ah, naughty!" she said. "Naughty, to make me tell! But as you _will_
ask--_he is going to write to-night_. But you must never let him know
I told you! And now I want you just to find the _Spectator_--it is
laid over that exquisit