"You are not very talkative, Jim," she said.

Thirlwell looked up with an apologetic smile, but his eyes rested on
the girl by Mrs. Allott's side. Evelyn Grant was young and attractive,
but there was something tame about her beauty that harmonized with her
character. Thirlwell had not always recognized this; indeed, when they
were younger, he had indulged a romantic tenderness for the girl. This,
however, was long since, and the renewal of their friendship in Canada
left him cold. Evelyn was gracious, and he sometimes thought she had not
forgotten his youthful admiration, but she did not feel things much, and
he suspected that she had acquiesced in Mrs. Allott's rather obvious
plot because she was too indolent to object. For all that, he imagined
that if he took a bold line she would not repulse him, and by comparison
with his poverty Evelyn was rich. Then he banished the thought with an
unconscious frown.

"Oh, well, I suppose it's our last evening together, and one feels
melancholy about that," he said.

"But I thought you were coming to New York with us," Mrs. Allott
objected.

Evelyn was talking animatedly to a young American, but looked round with
languid carelessness.

"Are you really not coming, Jim?" she asked.

Then, without waiting for Thirlwell's answer, she resumed her talk, and
Mrs. Allott wondered whether the girl had not overdone her part. After
all, she must have known why she had been brought.