r?"

"No; I'll go up and inquire how she is. Susanne is there, isn't she?"

And he entered the house and ascended the stairs.

The little Alsatian maid was seated in a corner of the upper hall,
sewing; and she informed Selwyn that mademoiselle "had bad in ze h'ead."

But at the sound of conversation in the corridor Eileen's gay voice came
to them from her room, asking who it was; and she evidently knew, for
there was a hint of laughter in her tone.

"It is I. Are you better?" said Selwyn.

"Yes. D-did you wish to see me?"

"I always do."

"Thank you. . . . I mean, do you wish to see me now? Because I'm very
much occupied in trying to go to sleep."

"Yes, I wish to see you at once."

"Particularly?"

"Very particularly."

"Oh, if it's as serious as that, you alarm me. I'm afraid to come."

"I'm afraid to have you. But please come."

He heard her laugh to herself; then her clear, amused voice: "What are
you going to say to me if I come out?"

"Something dreadful! Hurry!"

"Oh, if that's the case I'll hurry," she returned, and a moment later
the door opened and she emerged in a breezy flutter of silvery ribbons
and loosened ruddy hair.

She was dressed in some sort of delicate misty stuff that alternately
clung and floated, outlining or clouding her glorious young figure as
she moved with leisurely free-limbed grace across the hall to meet him.

The pretty greeting she always reserved for him, even if their
separation had been for a few minutes only, she now offered, hand
extended; a cool, fragrant hand which lay for a second in his, closed,
and withdrew, leaving her eyes very friendly.

"Come out on the west veranda," she said; "I know what you wish to say
to me. Besides, I have something to confide to you, too. And I'm very
impatient to do it."

He followed her to the veranda; she seated herself in the broad swing,
and moved so that her invitation to him was unmistakable. Then when he
had taken the place beside her she turned toward him very frankly, and
he looked up to encounter her beautiful direct gaze.

"What is disturbing our friendship?" she asked. "Do you know? I don't. I
went to my room after luncheon and lay down on my bed and quietly
deliberated. And do you know what conclusion I have reached?"

"What?" he asked.

"That there is nothing at all to disturb our friendship. And that what I
said to you on the beach was foolish. I don't know why I said it; I'm
not the sort of girl who sa