that the proceeding is not strictly conventional, and that
the absolutely correct thing would be for him to say good night when you
and Julius do, and that there are those who would regard my permitting a
young man in no way related to me to see me very often in the evening
without the protection of a duenna as a very unbecoming thing."

"I never have had such a thought about it," declared Mrs. Carling.

"I never for a moment supposed you had, dear," said Mary, "nor have I.
We are rather unconventional people, making very few claims upon
society, and upon whom 'society' makes very few."

"I am rather sorry for that on your account," said her sister.

"You needn't be," was the rejoinder. "I have no yearnings in that
direction which are not satisfied with what I have." She sat for a
minute or two with her hands clasped upon her knee, gazing reflectively
into the fire, which, in the growing darkness of the winter afternoon,
afforded almost the only light in the room. Presently she became
conscious that her sister was regarding her with an air of expectation,
and resumed: "Leaving the question of the conventions out of the
discussion as settled," she said, "there is nothing, Alice, that you
need have any concern about, either on Mr. Lenox's account or mine."

"You like him, don't you?" asked Mrs. Carling.

"Yes," said Mary frankly, "I like him very much. We have enough in
common to be rather sympathetic, and we differ enough not to be dull,
and so we get on very well. I never had a brother," she continued, after
a momentary pause, "but I feel toward him as I fancy I should feel
toward a brother of about my own age, though he is five or six years
older than I am."

"You don't think, then," said Mrs. Carling timidly, "that you are
getting to care for him at all?"

"In the sense that you use the word," was the reply, "not the least in
the world. If there were to come a time when I really believed I should
never see him again, I should be sorry; but if at any time it were a
question of six months or a year, I do not think my equanimity would be
particularly disturbed."

"And how about him?" suggested Mrs. Carling. There was no reply.

"Don't you think he may care for you, or be getting to?"

Mary frowned slightly, half closing her eyes and stirring a little
uneasily in her chair.

"He hasn't said anything to me on the subject," she replied evasively.

"Would that be necessary?" asked her sister.

"Perhaps not,"