ast wordless retort of the retiring "old love," whose hand had
gone up in a ridiculous bless-you-my-children attitude just before he
left her.

Their conversation started stiffly. He had come, he explained, to say
good-by. He was leaving the State to go to Washington prior to the
opening of the session.

This gave her a chance to congratulate him upon his election. "I
haven't had an opportunity before. You've been so busy, of course,
preparing to save the country, that your time must have been very fully
occupied."

He did not show his surprise at this interpretation of the fact that he
had quietly desisted from his attentions to her, but accepted it as the
correct explanation, since she had chosen to offer it.

Miss Balfour expressed regret that he was going, though she did not
suppose she would see any less of him than she had during the past two
months. He did not take advantage of her little flings to make the talk
less formal, and Virginia, provoked at his aloofness, offered no more
chances. Things went very badly, indeed, for ten minutes, at the end of
which time Hobart rose to go. Virginia was miserably aware of being
wretched despite the cool hauteur of her seeming indifference. But he
was too good a sportsman to go without letting her know he held no
grudge.

"I hope you will be very happy with Mr. Ridgway. Believe me, there is
nobody whose happiness I would so rejoice at as yours."

"Thank you," she smiled coolly, and her heart raced. "May I hope that
your good wishes still obtain even though I must seek my happiness
apart from Mr. Ridgway?"

He held her for an instant's grave, astonished questioning, before
which her eyes fell. Her thoughts side-tracked swiftly to long for and
to dread what was coming.

"Am I being told--you must pardon me if I have misunderstood your
meaning--that you are no longer engaged to Mr. Ridgway?"

She made obvious the absence of the solitaire she had worn.

Before the long scrutiny of his steady gaze: her eyes at last fell.

"If you don't mind, I'll postpone going just yet," he said quietly.

Her racing heart assured her fearfully, delightfully, that she did not
mind at all.

"I have no time and no compass to take my bearings. You will pardon me
if what I say seems presumptuous?"

Silence, which is not always golden, oppressed her. Why could she not
make light talk as she had been wont to do with Waring Ridgway?

"But if I ask too much, I shall not be hurt if you