sed her hands . . .
ever so lightly but without mistake. . . .

And his eyes, that shining brightness of his eyes. . . .

"Why rub it in about York Harbor?"

Cousin Jim was speaking and Maria Angelina came out of her dream with
sudden, painful intensity. Instinctively she divined that here was
something vital to her hope, and while her young face held the schooled,
unstirred detachment of the _jeune fille_, her senses were straining
nervously for any flicker of enlightenment.

"Why not rub it in?" countered Cousin Jane briskly. "He'll go there
before long, and he might as well know that he isn't throwing any sand
in our eyes. . . . This sulking here in town is simply to punish her."

"Perhaps he isn't sulking. Perhaps he doesn't care to run after her any
more. He may not be as keen about Leila Grey as you women think."

Maria Angelina's involuntary glance at Mrs. Blair caught the superior
assurance of her smile.

"My dear Jim! He was simply mad about her. That last leave, before he
went to France, he only went places to meet her."

"Well, he may have got over it. Men do," argued Cousin Jim stubbornly.

"Yes," echoed Maria Angelina's beating heart in hope, "men do!"

Cousin Jane laughed. "Men don't get over Leila Grey--not if Leila Grey
wants to keep them."

"If she wanted so darn much to keep him why didn't she take him then?"

"I didn't say she wanted to keep him _then_." Mrs. Blair's tones were
mysteriously, ironically significant. "Leila wasn't throwing herself
away on any young officer--with nothing but his insurance. It was Bobby
Martin that _she_ was after----"

"Gad! Was she?" Cousin Jim was patently struck by this. "Why, Bobby's
just a kid and she----"

"There's not two years' difference between them--in _years_. But Leila
came out very young--and she's the most thoroughly calculating----"

"Oh, come now, Jane--just because the girl didn't succumb to the
impecunious Barry and did like the endowed Bobby----! She may really
have liked him, you know."

"Oh, come now, yourself, Jim," retorted his wife good-humoredly. "Just
because she has blue eyes! No, if Leila really liked anybody I always
had the notion it was Barry--but she _wanted_ Bobby."

For a long moment Cousin Jim was silent, turning the thing over with his
cigar. Maria Angelina sat still as a mouse, fearful to breathe lest the
bewildering revelations cease. Cousin Jane, over her second cup of
coffee, had the air of a humorous and sup