" went on
the musical voice. "Just because you two chanced to grow up together
there is no reason any one should assume that the affair is settled. I
suppose you are afraid of disappointing the family. Then there is your
friendship for Roger--that worries you too. And of course there is
Cynthia herself! Being a gentleman you shrink from tossing a girl's
heart back into her lap. Isn't it so?"

"To some extent, yes."

"Would it help matters, do you think, for you to marry Cynthia if you
did not love her?"

"But I care a lot for her."

"Not as you do for this other girl," said the shrewd old lady, with
eyes fixed intently on his face.

"Oh, no!" was the instant reply.

"Then, as I said before, you much better let Cynthia alone," declared
Madam Lee emphatically. "At her age disappointments are not fatal, and
she will probably live to thank you for it. In any case it is better
to blight one life than three."

Robert stared moodily down at the floor.

"This other girl is attractive, you say."

"She is very beautiful."

"You don't say so!" was the incredulous rejoinder.

"But she really is--she is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

"And she has all these other virtues as well?"

She took the teacup from his passive hand and set it on the table.

"I want to see her and judge for myself," affirmed she. "I know
something of beauty--and of girls, too. Why don't you bring her over
here?"

"_Here_?"

"Why not?"

"But--but--it would look so strange, so pointed," gasped the young man.
"You see she doesn't even guess yet that I--"

He heard a low, infectious laugh.

"She knew it, you goose, from the first moment you looked at her,"
cried the old lady, "or she isn't the girl I think her. What do you
imagine we women are--blind?"

"No, of course not," Robert Morton said, joining in the laugh. "What I
meant was that I never had said anything that would--"

"You wouldn't need to, dear boy." His hostess put a hand caressingly
on his arm. "All you would have to do would be to look as foolish as
you do now, and she would understand just as I did." Then, resuming a
more serious manner, she continued: "It is a perfectly simple matter
for you to bring one friend to meet another, isn't it? Tell the girl I
have heard her story and have become interested in her. She will
overlook an old lady's whims and be quite willing enough to come, I'm
sure, if you wish it."

"I should like to have her mee