unmixed pleasure. She had remembered him of her own free will, and, in
spite of the change in her fortune, had made the first advances. Her
doubts about her future interviews had affected him but little; still
less, I fear, did he think of the other changes in her character and
disposition, for he was of that age when they added only a piquancy and
fascination to her--as of one who, in spite of her weakness of nature,
was still devoted to him! But he was painfully conscious that this
meeting had revived in him all the fears, vague uneasiness, and sense
of wrong that had haunted his first boyhood, and which he thought he had
buried at El Refugio four years ago. Susy's allusion to his father and
the reiteration of Peyton's skepticism awoke in his older intellect the
first feeling of suspicion that was compatible with his open nature.
Was this recurring reticence and mystery due to any act of his father's?
But, looking back upon it in after-years, he concluded that the incident
of that day was a premonition rather than a recollection.




CHAPTER XI


When he reached the college the Angelus had long since rung. In the
corridor he met one of the Fathers, who, instead of questioning him,
returned his salutation with a grave gentleness that struck him. He
had turned into Father Sobriente's quiet study with the intention of
reporting himself, when he was disturbed to find him in consultation
with three or four of the faculty, who seemed to be thrown into some
slight confusion by his entrance. Clarence was about to retire hurriedly
when Father Sobriente, breaking up the council with a significant glance