"My name is Iris Aglen."

"Iris! It is a pretty name!"

"It was, I believe, my grandmother's. But I never saw her, and I do
not know who or what my father's relations are."

"Iris Aglen!" he repeated. "Iris was the Herald of the Gods, and the
rainbow was constructed on purpose to serve her for a way from Heaven
to the Earth."

"Mathematicians do not allow that," said the girl, smiling.

"I don't know any mathematics. But now I understand in what school you
learned your heraldry. You are Queen-at-Arms at least, and Herald to
the Gods of Olympus."

He wished to add something about the loveliness of Aphrodite, and the
wisdom of Athene, but he refrained, which was in good taste.

"Thank you, Mr. Arbuthnot," Iris replied. "I learned my heraldry of my
grandfather, who taught himself from the books he sells. And my
mathematics I learned of Lala Roy, who is our lodger, and a learned
Hindoo gentleman. My father is dead--and my mother as well--and I have
no friends in the world except these two old men, who love me, and
have done their best to spoil me."

Her eyes grew humid and her voice trembled.

No other friends in the world! Strange to say, this young man felt a