h absorbed in the question that she almost forgot its
personal bearing. 'Mr. Falkirk, false and true cannot be just
alike?'

'Remember that in both cases so much is true. The desire to
win your favour, and therefore the effort to please, are
undoubted.'

'Mr. Falkirk, you must be the assayer! Suppose you tell me now
about all these people here, to begin with. I have not seen
much that reminded me of magic _yet_,' she said with a curl of
her lips.

'What people?' said Mr. Falkirk, hastily.

'What people? Oh, I forgot--you were not at Mme. Lasalle's to-
day. But I thought you knew everybody here before we came.'

'I shall not be with you everywhere,' Mr. Falkirk went on;
'that would suit neither me nor you. The safe plan, Miss
Hazel, would be, when you think anybody is seeking your good
graces, to ask me whether he has gained mine. I will conclude
nothing of _your_ views in the matter from any such confidence.
But I will ask you to trust me thus far,--and afterwards.'

'You mean, sir, whether--he has gained mine or not?'

Mr. Falkirk answered this with one of his rare smiles, shrewd
and sweet, benignant, and yet with a play of something like
mirth in the dark, overhung eyes. It was a look which
recognized all the difficulty of the situation and the
subject, for both parties.

'I am afraid the thing is unmanageable, my dear,' he said at
last. 'You will rush up the hill without stopping your ears,
after some fancied "golden water" at the top; and I shall come
after and find you turned into some stone or other. And then
you will object very much to being picked up and put in my
pocket. I see it all before me.'

She laughed a little, but shyly; not quite at ease upon the
subject even with him. Then rose up, gathering on her arm the
light wraps she had thrown down when she came in.

'I must have been always a great deal of trouble!' she said.
'But I do not want to give you more. Mr. Falkirk, wont you
kiss me and say good night to me, as you used to do in old
times? That is better than any number of fastenings to your
pocket, to keep me from jumping out.'

Once it had been his habit, as she said; now long disused. He
did not at once answer; he, too, was gathering up a paper or
two and a book from the table. But then he came where she
stood, and taking her hand stooped and kissed her forehead. He
did not then say good night; he kissed her and went. And the
barring and bolting and locking up for the night were d