previously.
"What is it makes the mathematicians such fools? They never seem to grow
up. They tell us they're splendid fellows, and of course we must believe
them. But who's to know?"

Meanwhile, Alice and Sorell followed them at some distance behind, while
Mrs. Hooper and three or four other members of the party brought up the
rear. Scroll's look was a little clouded. He had heard what passed in
the hall, and he found himself glancing uncomfortably from the girl
beside him to the pair forging so gaily ahead. Alice Hooper's expression
seemed to him that of something weak and tortured. All through the
winter, in the small world of Oxford, the flirtation between Pryce of
Beaumont and Ewen Hooper's eldest girl had been a conspicuous thing,
even for those who had little or no personal knowledge of the Hoopers.
It was noticed with amusement that Pryce had at last found some one to
whom he might talk as long and egotistically as he pleased about himself
and his career; and kindly mothers had said to each other that it would
be a comfort to the Hoopers to have one of the daughters settled, though
in a modest way.

"It is pleasant to see that your cousin enjoys Oxford so much," said
Sorell, as they neared the museum, and saw Pryce and Connie disappearing
through the gate of the park.

"Yes. She seems to like it," said Alice coldly.

Sorell began to talk of his first acquaintance with the Risboroughs, and
of Connie's mother. There was no hint in what he said of his own
passionate affection for his dead friends. He was not a profaner of
shrines. But what he said brought out the vastness of Connie's loss in
the death of her mother; and he repeated something of what he had heard
from others of her utter physical and mental collapse after the double
tragedy of the year before.

"Of course you'll know more about it than I do. But one of the English
doctors in Rome, who is a friend of mine, told me that they thought at
one time they couldn't pull her through. She seemed to have nothing else
to live for."

"Oh, I don't think it was as bad as that," said Alice drily. "Anyway,
she's quite well and strong now."

"She's found a home again. That's a great comfort to all her mother's
old friends."

Sorell smiled upon his companion; the sensitive kindness in his own
nature appealing to the natural pity in hers.

But Alice made no reply; and he dropped the subject.

They walked across the park, under a wide summer sky, towards th