d that was only the beginning of the very odd, but very
real, friendship which sprang up between them. It would have
surprised--perhaps shocked--her friends to know how much time she spent
with him; but it would have shocked them still more to know the topics
of the conversations between them. She herself was amazed every time she
left him; not at the range and depth of his interests and his
knowledge--but at her own. He seemed to evoke ideas and words that she
had never dreamed were there. It struck her as little short of sorcery.

But the situation was not wholly pleasant. There were little rifts to
mar the lute. The first came after several weeks. It was Roger who
introduced it.

"Say, Judith," he said suddenly, one night at dinner, "Good's going to
be up and around pretty soon. You can't keep him cooped up there
forever, you know. When are you going to have him down to meals?"

He voiced a question which had been occurring with troublesome frequency
in her own mind. She was silent for a moment, as she struggled with a
decision she could no longer evade. It was a curious predicament in
which events had placed her--not easy to understand readily. It was
indisputable that Good was ignorant of either the theory or practice of
those conventions of the table upon which, against her will, she set
much store. It was equally certain that he was quite conscious of his
deficiencies in that respect. Were she in his place, she told herself,
she would prefer not to suffer the embarrassments which the contrasts
between themselves and him must entail. But on the other hand, did she
not perhaps over-emphasise his sensitiveness, and was it not more than
probable that to his sense of proportion her conception of the _manner_
of human intercourse was absurd, if not pitiful? She found herself in a
situation where, in an effort to be kind, she might be cruel. And what
was to her merely tact, might be to him pure snobbishness. That settled
the problem. She could not risk even the appearance of pettiness. The
decision made her realise, as nothing else had, how much his judgments
had come to mean to her.

"You're right, Roger," she said finally; "we'll have him down
to-morrow."

Roger looked at her quizzically.

"Where?" he asked.

"Where?" She affected bewilderment.

"Yes. Here ... or alone ... or...?"

She struggled momentarily.

"Why, here--of course--with us," she said firmly. Then very quickly, and
with finality, she chang