voila
Monsieur Frankline.'

'Who? Where?' Althea rose in her chair.

'Mais oui; c'est bien Monsieur Frankline,' Amelie pointed. 'Voila ce qui
est gentil, par exemple,' and by this comment of Amelie's Althea knew
that Gerald's absence was observed and judged. She got out of her
chair, yet with a strange reluctance. It was not pleasure that she felt;
it was, rather, a fuller realisation of pain. Going to the railing she
looked down at the wharf. Yes, there was Franklin's pale buff-coloured
countenance raised to hers, serene and smiling. He waved his hat. Althea
was only able not to look dismayed and miserable in waving back. That
Franklin should care enough to come; that Gerald should care too little.
But she drew herself together to smile brightly down upon her faithful
lover. Franklin--Franklin above all--must not guess what she was
feeling.

'Well,' were his first words, as she came down the gangway, 'I thought
we'd keep up our old American habits.' The words, she felt, were very
tactful; they made things easier for her; they even comforted her a
little. One mustn't be too hard on Gerald if it was an American habit.

'It _is_ a nice one,' she said, grasping Franklin's hand. 'I must make
Gerald acquire it.'

'Why don't you keep it for me?' smiled Franklin. She felt, as he piloted
her to the Customs, that either his tact or his ingenuousness was
sublime. She leaned on it, whichever it was.

'Have you seen Gerald?' she asked, as they stood beside her marshalled
array of boxes. 'He seemed very fit and happy in the letters I had at
Queenstown.'

'No, I've not seen him yet,' smiled Franklin, looking about to catch the
eye of an official.

'Then'--was on the tip of Althea's tongue--'how did you know I was not
going to be met?' She checked the revealing question, and Franklin's
next remark--whether tactful or ingenuous in its appropriateness she
once more could not tell--answered it: 'I've been seeing a good deal of
Miss Buchanan; she told me Mr. Digby wouldn't be able to come up here.'

'Oh--Helen!' Althea was thankful to be able to pass from the theme of
Gerald and his inabilities. 'So you have been seeing her. Have you been
long in London? Have you seen her often?'

'I got to London last Monday, and I've seen her as often as she could
let me. We're very good friends, you know,' said Franklin.

She didn't know at all, and she found the information rather
bewildering. At Merriston her own situation had far too