even without saying farewell. "I don't recognize good-bys," said he;
"there are too many sorrowful partings in the world already. I never
give them the slightest encouragement." But the ladies persisted in
considering the dinner at an end; then the two friends conducted the
Denhams to the door of their own parlor and there took leave of them.

"Well?" said Lynde as he seated himself beside Flemming in the carriage.
"What do you think of her?"

"An unusually agreeable woman," returned Flemming carelessly. "She is
thirty-eight, she looks twenty-six, and is as pleasant as nineteen."

"I mean Miss Denham!"

"Ned, I don't care to discuss Miss Denham. When I think of your
connecting that lovely lady with a crazy creature you met somewhere or
other, I am troubled touching your intellect."

"But I do not any longer connect her with that unfortunate girl. I told
you to put all that out of your mind."

"I don't find it easy to do, Ned; it is so monstrous. Was not this
dinner an arrangement for me to see Miss Denham and in some way judge
her?"

"No, Flemming; there was a moment yesterday evening when I had some such
wild idea. I had grown morbid by being alone all day and brooding over a
resemblance which I have not been able to prevent affecting me
disagreeably at intervals. This resemblance does not exist for you, and
you have not been subtile enough to put yourself in my place. However,