"Yes! you young folks are falling into shockingly irregular
habits--take unprecedented liberties with me and with Time!" shaking
her head. "If Winston do not return soon, you will set my mild rule
entirely at defiance."

Chilton laughed--but was serious the next instant.

"I expected confidently to meet him at this visit," he said,
glancing at the door to guard against being overheard. "Should he
not return to-day, ought I not, before leaving this to-morrow, to
write to him, since he is legally his sister's guardian? It is, you
and she tell me, a mere form, but one that should not be dispensed
with any longer."

"That may be so. Winston is rigorous in requiring what is due to his
position--is, in some respects, a fearful formalist. But he will
hardly oppose your wishes and Mabel's. He has her real happiness at
heart, I believe, although he is, at times, an over-strict and
exacting guardian--perhaps to counterbalance my indulgent policy. He
is unlike any other young man I know."

"His sister is very much attached to him."

"She loves him--I was about to say, preposterously. Her implicit
belief in and obedience to him have increased his self-confidence
into a dogmatic assertion of infallibility. But"--fearing she might
create an unfortunate impression upon the listener's mind--"Winston
has grounds for his good opinion of himself. His character is
unblemished--his principles and aims are excellent. Only"--relapsing
hopelessly into the confidential strain in which most of the