good first impression.

Every moment increased this predisposition in her favor. She must have
known that she was very attractive, for few girls reach her age
without attaining such knowledge; but her observer, and in a certain
sense her critic, could not detect the faintest trace of affectation
or self-consciousness. Her manner, her words, and even their accent
seemed unstudied, unpracticed, and unmodelled after any received type.
Her glance was peculiarly open and direct, and from the first she gave
Graham the feeling that she was one who might be trusted absolutely.
That she had tact and kindliness also was evidenced by the fact that
she did not misunderstand or resent his comparative silence. At first,
after learning that he had lived much abroad, her manner toward him
had been a little shy and wary, indicating that she may have surmised
that his reticence was the result of a certain kind of superiority
which travelled men--especially young men--often assume when meeting
those whose lives are supposed to have a narrow horizon; but she
quickly discovered that Graham had no foreign-bred pre-eminence to
parade--that he wanted to talk with her if he could only find some
common subject of interest. This she supplied by taking him to ground
with which he was perfectly familiar, for she asked him to tell her
something about university life in Germany. On such a theme he could
converse well, and before long a fire of eager questions proved that
he had not only a deeply interested listener but also a very
intelligent one.

Mrs. Mayburn smiled complacently, for she had some natural desire that
her nephew should make a favorable impression. In regard to Miss St.
John she had long ceased to have any misgivings, and the approval that
she saw in Graham's eyes was expected as a matter of course. This