t I say on Sunday,
chews a mental cud over it, and throws up masticated morsels of my own
conversation to confound my inconsistency on Wednesday.' Then we all
said: `That is quite true!' and `Quite so!' and she addressed each of us
and asked: `And what is your idea of a bore, Mrs Seaton? Johanna, give
us your definition of the term?' and we each scintillated to the best of
our ability, and then mentally adjourned into the kitchen and
interviewed the old servant in her turn."

"I should be so devoured with anxiety thinking out my own sally that I
shouldn't be able to appreciate my neighbour's brilliance... Bores are
a pretty prolific subject. I should like, just for curiosity, to hear
_your_ definition."

"`Katrine! let us now have your definition of the term,'" quoted Katrine
mockingly. "There, you see, you are already starting the game on your
own account. Why do you want to know?"

"So that I may act contrariwise, of course."

"It is true... Isabel was right. Here you are already, back at our
bacon! I am afraid, Captain Bedford, that you are very much absorbed in
yourself."

"Devoted to him! Of course. Why shouldn't I be? Know him so well,
don't you know--understand his ways! Capital fellow, when you know
him.--A woman asked me once whom I loved best in the world. I said:
`Myself, of course.' It was the bed-rock truth; it is the truth about
most solitary people, if they would only admit it, but she was shocked."

"I'm shocked, too. Even if it were true, I don't think one should
admit--"

"I don't say it now. It would not be true. That was some time ago."

Katrine's thoughts flew back with instant recollection to the day
before, to the quiet pocketing of the tortoise-shell trifle. She waited
silently, holding her breath in the intensity of her anxiety, but no
explanation was vouchsafed. She tossed her head with a restless
gesture, and said tentatively:

"You--you are not in the least what I expected."

"What precisely did you expect?"

"N-othing precisely, but everything different! I thought you'd be older
for one thing, and would look more worn. Captain Blair said you were
shy and silent."

"Blair would say anything but his prayers. As a matter of fact I _was_
paralysingly shy at dinner that night! Glad I concealed it so well. It
was rather a formidable occasion meeting an--"

"Unknown girl! Was I?" Katrine hesitated on the verge of a question,
eager yet bashful, and her com