"Oh, I only want to be just."

Mrs. Vivian for a moment said nothing.

"Do you want very much to be just?" she presently asked.

"It 's my most ardent desire."

"I 'm glad to hear that--and I can easily believe it," said Mrs. Vivian.

Bernard gave her a grateful smile, but while he smiled, he asked himself
a serious question. "Why the deuce does she go on flattering me?--You
have always been very kind to me," he said aloud.

"It 's on Mr. Wright's account," she answered demurely.

In speaking the words I have just quoted, Bernard Longueville had felt
himself, with a certain compunction, to be skirting the edge of clever
impudence; but Mrs. Vivian's quiet little reply suggested to him that
her cleverness, if not her impudence, was almost equal to his own. He
remarked to himself that he had not yet done her justice.

"You bring everything back to Gordon Wright," he said, continuing to
smile.

Mrs. Vivian blushed a little.

"It is because he is really at the foundation of everything that is
pleasant for us here. When we first came we had some very disagreeable
rooms, and as soon as he arrived he found us some excellent ones--that