y had come together she had a clear advantage, and as it was
likely to be a rare occasion, she did not let it slip. She sighed again.
He was wounded by her underestimate of his ancient conquest.

'Yes--now,' he said, impatiently.

'I cannot feel jealousy, I cannot feel rivalry,' said she, sad of voice.

The humour of her tranced eyes in the shaking head provoked him to defend
the baroness for her goodness of heart, her energy of brain.

Clotilde 'tolled' her naughty head.

'But it is a strong face,' she said, 'a strong face--a strong jaw, by
Lavater! You were young--and daringly adventurous; she was captivating in
her distress. Now she is old--and you are friends.'

'Friends, yes,' Alvan replied, and praised the girl, as of course she
deserved to be praised for her open mind.

'We are friends!' he said, dropping a deep-chested breath. The title this
girl scornfully supplied was balm to the vanity she had stung, and his
burnt skin was too eager for a covering of any sort to examine the mood
of the giver. She had positively humbled him so far as with a single word
to relieve him; for he had seen bristling chapters in her look at the
photograph. Yet for all the natural sensitiveness of the man's vanity, he
did not seek to bury the subject at the cost of a misconception injurious
in the slightest degree to the sentiments he entertained toward the older
lady as well as the younger. 'Friends! you are right; good friends; only
you should know that it is just a little--a trifle different. The fact
is, I cannot kill the past, and I would not. It would try me sharply to
break the tie connecting us, were it possible to break it. I am bound to
her by gratitude. She is old now; and were she twice that age, I should
retain my feeling for her. You raise your eyes, Clotilde! Well, when I
was much younger I found this lady in desperate ill-fortune, and she
honoured me with her confidence. Young man though I was, I defended her;
I stopped at no measure to defend her: against a powerful husband,
remember--the most unscrupulous of foes, who sought to rob her of every
right she possessed. And what I did then I again would do. I was vowed to
her interests, to protect a woman shamefully wronged; I did not stick at
trifles, as you know; you have read my speech in defence of myself before
the court. By my interpretation of the case, I was justified; but I
estranged my family and made the world my enemy. I gave my time and
money, besides t