xpression
about his mouth, as sailors do: kiss it, perhaps, with a simple air, as
if we were children playing an idle game, and not at the very height of
observation and envy by a great crowd saying, "Ah! they are happy now!"

'If he should be rather a poor man--noble-minded and affectionate, but
still poor--'

Owen's footsteps rapidly ascending the stairs, interrupted this
fancy-free meditation. Reproaching herself, even angry with herself
for allowing her mind to stray upon such subjects in the face of their
present desperate condition, she rose to meet him, and make tea.

Cytherea's interest to know how her brother had been received at Mr.
Gradfield's broke forth into words at once. Almost before they had sat
down to table, she began cross-examining him in the regular sisterly
way.

'Well, Owen, how has it been with you to-day? What is the place like--do
you think you will like Mr. Gradfield?'

'O yes. But he has not been there to-day; I have only had the head
draughtsman with me.'

Young women have a habit, not noticeable in men, of putting on at a
moment's notice the drama of whosoever's life they choose. Cytherea's
interest was transferred from Mr. Gradfield to his representative.

'What sort of a man is he?'

'He seems a very nice fellow indeed; though of course I can hardly tell
to a certainty as yet. But I think he's a very worthy fellow; there's
no nonsense in him, and though he is not a public school man he has read
widely, and has a sharp appreciation of what's good in books and art.
In fact, his knowledge isn't nearly so exclusive as most professional
men's.'

'That's a great deal to say of an architect, for of all professional men
they are, as a rule, the most professional.'

'Yes; perhaps they are. This man is rather of a melancholy turn of mind,
I think.'

'Has the managing clerk any family?' she mildly asked, after a while,
pouring out some more tea.

'Family; no!'

'Well, dear Owen, how should I know?'

'Why, of course he isn't married. But there happened to be a
conversation about women going on in the office, and I heard him say
what he should wish his wife to be like.'

'What would he wish his wife to be like?' she said, with great apparent
lack of interest.

'O, he says she must be girlish and artless: yet he would be loth to do
without a dash of womanly subtlety, 'tis so piquant. Yes, he said, that
must be in her; she must have womanly cleverness. "And yet I should like
her