ile.
Madame Grandoni was an intelligent listener, and she lost no time in
putting his case for him in a nutshell. "At one moment you tell me the
girl is plain," she said; "the next you tell me she 's pretty. I will
invite them, and I shall see for myself. But one thing is very clear:
you are in love with her."

Rowland, for all answer, glanced round to see that no one heard her.

"More than that," she added, "you have been in love with her these two
years. There was that certain something about you!... I knew you were a
mild, sweet fellow, but you had a touch of it more than was natural.
Why did n't you tell me at once? You would have saved me a great deal of
trouble. And poor Augusta Blanchard too!" And herewith Madame Grandoni
communicated a pertinent fact: Augusta Blanchard and Mr. Leavenworth
were going to make a match. The young lady had been staying for a month
at Albano, and Mr. Leavenworth had been dancing attendance. The event
was a matter of course. Rowland, who had been lately reproaching himself
with a failure of attention to Miss Blanchard's doings, made some such
observation.

"But you did not find it so!" cried his hostess. "It was a matter of
course, perhaps, that Mr. Leavenworth, who seems to be going about
Europe with the sole view of picking up furniture for his 'home,' as he
calls it, should think Miss Blanchard a very handsome piece; but it was
not a matter of course--or it need n't have been--that she should be
willing to become a sort of superior table-ornament. She would have
accepted you if you had tried."

"You are supposing the insupposable," said Rowland. "She never gave me a
particle of encouragement."

"What would you have had her do? The poor girl did her best, and I am
sure that when she accepted Mr. Leavenworth she thought of you."

"She thought of the pleasure her marriage would give me."

"Ay, pleasure indeed! She is a thoroughly good girl, but she has her
little grain of feminine spite, like the rest. Well, he 's richer than
you, and she will have what she wants; but before I forgive you I must
wait and see this new arrival--what do you call her?--Miss Garland. If
I like her, I will forgive you; if I don't, I shall always bear you a
grudge."

Rowland answered that he was sorry to forfeit any advantage she might
offer him, but that his exculpatory passion for Miss Garland was a
figment of her fancy. Miss Garland was engaged to another man, and he
himself had no claims.

"We