moves a little away from him, but otherwise shows no emotion
whatever. "The more so, in that it must be so difficult for you to
love a person in fourteen days! Ah! that is kind, indeed."

A curious light comes into Sir Hastings' eyes. This little
Australian girl, is she _laughing_ at him? But the fact is that
Perpetua is hardly thinking of him at all, or merely as a shadow to
her thoughts. Who _is_ he like? that is the burden of her inward
song. At this moment she knows. She lifts her head to see the
professor standing in the curtained doorway down below. Ah! yes,
that is it! And, indeed, the resemblance between the two brothers is
wonderfully strong at this instant! In the eyes of both a quick fire
is kindled.



CHAPTER XII.



"Love, like a June rose,
Buds and sweetly blows--
But tears its leaves disclose,
And among thorns it grows."



The professor had been standing inside the curtain for a full minute
before Perpetua had seen him. Spell-bound he had stood there, gazing
at the girl as if bewitched. Up to this he had seen her only in