exasperate you.'

Rhoda laughed gaily.

'Oh, it will be a marriage of the golden age! Perhaps I shall remember
the bride when she was a little girl; and I shall give her a kiss, and
pat her on the rosy cheek, and wish her joy. And the bridegroom will be
such a good-hearted simpleton, unable to pronounce _f_ and _s_. I don't
mind that sort of marriage a bit!'

The listeners were both regarding her--Miss Barfoot with an
affectionate smile, Everard with a puzzled, searching look, ending in
amusement.

'I must run down into that country some day,' said the latter.

He did not stay much longer, but left only because he feared to burden
the ladies with too much of his company.

Again a week passed, and the same evening found Barfoot approaching the
house in Queen's Road. To his great annoyance he learnt that Miss
Barfoot was not at home; she had dined, but afterwards had gone out. He
did not venture to ask for Miss Nunn, and was moving disappointedly
away, when Rhoda herself, returning from a walk, came up to the door.
She offered her hand gravely, but with friendliness.

'Miss Barfoot, I am sorry to say, has gone to visit one of our girls
who is ill. But I think she will very soon be back. Will you come in?'

'Gladly. I had so counted on an hour's talk.'

Rhoda led him to the drawing-room, excused herself for a few moments,
and came back in her ordinary evening dress. Barfoot noticed that her
hair was much more becomingly arranged than when he first saw her; so
it had been on the last occasion, but for some reason its appearance
attracted his eyes this evening. He scrutinized her, at discreet
intervals, from head to foot. To Everard, nothing female was alien;
woman, merely as woman, interested him profoundly. And this example of
her sex had excited his curiosity in no common degree. His concern with
her was purely intellectual; she had no sensual attraction for him, but
he longed to see further into her mind, to probe the sincerity of the
motives she professed, to understand her mechanism, her process of
growth. Hitherto he had enjoyed no opportunity of studying this type.
For his cousin was a very different person; by habit he regarded her as
old, whereas Miss Nunn, in spite of her thirty years, could not
possibly be considered past youth.

He enjoyed her air of equality; she sat down with him as a male
acquaintance might have done, and he felt sure that her behaviour would
be the same under any circumstances. H