Howard turned the subject and tried to draw her out of this mood. They sat
there for several hours and became well acquainted. He found that she had
an intelligent way of looking at things, that she observed closely, and
that she appreciated and understood far more than he had expected.

It was the beginning of a series of evenings spent together. He took her
with him on many of his assignments and they often dined together at "Le
Chat Noir" or the "Restaurant de Paris," or "The Manhattan" over in Second
Avenue. Late in June she bought a new gown--a pale-grey with ribbons and
hat to match. Howard was amused at the anxious expression in her gold-brown
eyes as she waited for his opinion. And when he said: "Well, well, I never
saw you look so pretty," she looked much prettier with a slight colour
rising to tint the usual pallor of her cheeks.

One Sunday he came home in the afternoon and found her helping the maid at
straightening his rooms. As he lay on the lounge smoking he watched her
lazily. She handled his books with a great deal of awe. She opened one of
them and sat on the floor in the childlike way she often had. She read
several sentences aloud. It was a tangle of technical words on the subject
of political economy.

"What do you have such stupid things around for?" she said, smiling and
rising. She began to arrange the books and papers on the table. He was
looking at her but thinking of something else when he became conscious that
she had got suddenly white to the lips. He jumped to his feet.

"What's the matter?" he asked, "are you going to faint?"

Her eyes were shining as with fever out of a ghostly face. Her lips