sympathetically with an earnest Catholic, for example, or an
earnest Evangelical, than we can talk with a mere ordinary worldly
person."

"Oh dear, yes," Herminia answered with conviction. "Thought will
always sympathize with thought. It's the unthinking mass one can
get no further with."

Alan changed the subject abruptly. This girl so interested him.
She was the girl he had imagined, the girl he had dreamt of, the
girl he had thought possible, but never yet met with. "And you're
in lodgings on the Holmwood here?" he said, musing. "For how much
longer?"

"For, six weeks, I'm glad to say," Herminia answered, rising.

"At what cottage?"

"Mrs. Burke's,--not far from the station."

"May I come to see you there?"

Herminia's clear brown eyes gazed down at him, all puzzlement.
"Why, surely," she answered; "I shall be delighted to see you!"
She paused for a second. "We agree about so many things," she went
on; "and it's so rare to find a man who can sympathize with the
higher longings in women."

"When are you likeliest to be at home?" Alan asked.