d to
Arnold not worth mentioning. At all events, he had not mentioned it in
his daily letters.

And now she was coming home; she was actually arrived; he would see
her that evening. Her last letter was lying before him.

"I parted from dear Stella yesterday. She goes to stay with
the Essex Mainwarings for a month; after that, I hope that
she will give me a long visit. I do not know where one could
find a sweeter girl, or one more eminently calculated to
make a man happy. Beautiful, strictly speaking, she is not,
perhaps, but of excellent connections, not without a
portion, young, clever, and ambitious. With such a wife, my
dear Arnold, a man may aspire to anything."

"To anything!" repeated Arnold; "what is her notion of anything? She
has arrived by this time." He looked at his watch and found it was
past five. "I ought to have been at the station to meet her. I must go
round and see her, and I must dine with her to-night." He sighed
heavily. "It would be much pleasanter to spend the evening with Iris."

Then a carriage stopped at his door. It was his cousin, and the next
minute he was receiving and giving the kiss of welcome. For his own
part, he felt guilty, because he could put so little heart into that
kiss, compared with all previous embraces. She was a stout, hearty
little woman, who could never have been in the least beautiful, even
when she was young. Now on the middle line, between forty and fifty,
she looked as if her face had been chopped out of the marble by a rude
but determined artist, one who knew what he wanted and would tolerate
no conventional work. So that her face, at all events, was, if not
unique, at least unlike any other face one had ever seen. Most faces,
we know, can be reduced to certain general types--even Iris's face
might be classified--while of yours, my brother, there are, no doubt,
multitudes. Miss Holland, however, had good eyes--bright, clear
gray--the eyes of a woman who knows what she wants and means to get it
if she can.

"Well, my dear," she said, taking the one comfortable chair in the
studio, "I am back again, and I have enjoyed my journey very much; we
will have all the travels this evening. You are looking splendid,
Arnold!"

"I am very well indeed. And you, Clara? But I need not ask."

"No, I am always well. I told you about dear Stella, did I not? I
never had a more delightful companion."

"So glad you liked her."

"If only