ies and his heart strengthened with hope.
At her second coming--she herself now occupied a poor little lodging
not very far away--Eve beheld sundry improvements. By the fireside
stood a great leather chair, deep, high-backed, wondrously
self-assertive over against the creaky cane seat which before had
dominated the room. Against the wall was a high bookcase, where
Hilliard's volumes, previously piled on the floor, stood in loose
array; and above the mantelpiece hung a framed engraving of the
Parthenon.
"This is dreadful extravagance!" she exclaimed, pausing at the
threshold, and eying her welcomer with mock reproof.
"It is, but not on my part. The things came a day or two ago, simply
addressed to me from shops."
"Who was the giver, then?"
"Must be Narramore, of course. He was here not long ago, and growled a
good deal because I hadn't a decent chair for his lazy bones."
"I am much obliged to him," said Eve, as she sank back in the seat of
luxurious repose. "You ought to hang his portrait in the room. Haven't
you a photograph?" she added carelessly.
"Such a thing doesn't exist. Like myself, he hasn't had a portrait
taken since he was a child. A curious thing, by-the-bye, that you
should have had yours taken just when you did. Of course it was because
you were going far away for the first time; but it marked a point in
your life, and put on record the Eve Madeley whom no one would see
again If I can't get that photograph in any other way I shall go and
buy, beg, or steal it from Mrs. Brewer."
"Oh, you shall have one if you insist upon it."
"Why did you refuse it before?"
"I hardly know--a fancy--I thought you would keep looking at it, and
regretting that I had changed so."
As on her previous visit, she soon ceased to talk, and, in listening to
Hilliard, showed unconsciously a tired, despondent face.
"Nothing yet," fell from her lips, when he had watched her silently.
"Never mind; I hate the mention of it."
"By-the-bye," he resumed, "Narramore astounded me by hinting at
marriage. It's Miss Birching, the sister of my man. It hasn't come to
an engagement yet, and if it ever does I shall give Miss Birching the
credit for it. It would have amused you to hear him talking about her,
with a pipe in his mouth and half asleep. I understand now why he took
young Birching with him to Switzerland. He'll never carry it through;
unless, as I said, Miss Birching takes the decisive step."
"Is she the kind
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