success--that, and his grit and daring and enterprise
and general cleverness. Oh, Basil, if you could have heard him telling
me these things that last night on the _Olympic_--leaning back in his
deck-chair, smoking cigarette after cigarette (I was smoking too. I hate
it; but I think he likes a woman to smoke and be a man's pal), the
moonlight shining on his face, showing his eyes half shut, and talking
in his quietest way, as if he were dreaming it all over again, or
speaking to himself! I hardly breathed, till he broke off suddenly and
laughed in quite a shy sort of way, ashamed of being 'egotistical,'
though he hadn't praised himself at all. The flowery things I've said
are mine. He even apologized! I felt I'd never had so great a compliment
in my life. It seemed too good to be true that such a man should have
opened his heart to me. But when his invitation for Scotland came,
it--it set the seal of reality on the rest. Do you know, I can't help
believing he made more than he need of his business in London; that the
real truth was he wanted to stay there without us, and see how much he
missed me. Now he's coming to accept _our_ invitation, a day sooner than
he meant to at first. Something tells me the reason why. I shall know
for sure to-night, when I see him. He didn't want us to meet him at the
station. But that was perhaps because--I couldn't have gone very well
without you, and maybe----"

"I see! I'm to make myself scarce and leave you alone in the garden!"

"Not yet, dear. Only when we hear the car actually stopping at the gate.
There'll be plenty of time then. And if you don't mind----"

"Of course, I don't mind," said Basil. He felt that he was blushing
under the cover of darkness, and was thankful Aline could not see. Why
the blush, he could not have explained. Was it for his sister, because
she was managing her love affairs with a famous man in this energetic,
businesslike way, and jumping eagerly at conclusions? Or was it for
himself, because he was selfish and jealous of the new interest in
Aline's life, which would--if it ended as she hoped--take her away from
him and break their partnership?

He almost wished to accept the latter explanation. He would rather be
disappointed in himself than think meanly--oh, ever so little meanly--of
Aline.

Their partnership, begun when he was in the depths, regarding his life
as practically finished, had given him the greatest happiness he had
ever known. Memory fl