, and she
evidently made a mental note of it. She was silent for some minutes.

"I suppose you'll go out at nights with him?" was her next remark.

"It is scarcely likely. Where should we go to?"

"Oh, I don't know, and I don't suppose it matters much, to me."

"You seem vexed at this, Harriet. I'm very sorry. Really, it's the
first friend I've ever had. I've often felt the need of some such
companionship."

"I'm nobody?" she said, with a laugh, the first today.

Julian's face registered very perfectly the many subtle phases of
thought and emotion which succeeded each other in his mind. This last
remark distressed him for a moment; he could not bear to hurt another's
feelings.

"Of course I meant male friend," he said quickly. "You are my sister."

"No, I'm not," was the reply; and, as she spoke, Harriet glanced
sideways at him in a particularly unpleasant manner. She herself meant
it to be pleasant.

"Oh yes, you are, Harriet," he insisted good-humouredly. "We've been
brother and sister ever since we can remember, haven't we?"

"But we aren't really, for all that," said the girl, looking away.
"Well, now you've got somebody else to take you up, I know very well I
shall see less of you. You'll be making excuses to get out of the rides
when the summer comes again."

"Pray don't say or think anything of the kind, Harriet," urged Julian
with feeling. "I should not think of letting anything put a stop to our
picnics. It will soon be getting warm enough to think of the river,
won't it? And then, if you would like it, there is no reason why my
friend shouldn't come with us, sometimes."

"Oh, nonsense! Why, you'd be ashamed to let him know me."

"Ashamed! How can you possibly think so? But you don't mean it; you are
joking."

"I'm sure I'm not. I should make mistakes in talking, and all sorts of
things. You don't think much of me, as it is, and that would make you
like me worse still."

She tossed her head nervously, and swung her arms with the awkward
restlessness which always denoted some strong feeling in her.

"Come, Harriet, this is too bad," Julian exclaimed, smiling. "Why, I
shall have to quarrel with you, to prove that we're good friends."

"I wish you _would_ quarrel with me sometimes," said the girl, laughing
in a forced way. "You take all my bad-temper always just in the same
quiet way. I'd far rather you fell out with me. It's treating me too
like a child, as if it didn't matter how I went on,