he comes back
whether he's lost or won; he does so take it to heart, silly man! Do
_you_ play billiards?"

The other shook his head.

"I thought not. You have a serious look."

Hilliard did not relish this compliment. He imagined he had cast away
his gloom; he desired to look like the men who take life with easy
courage. As he gazed through the glass door into the street, a figure
suddenly blocked his prospect, and a face looked in. Then the door
opened, and there entered a young man of clerkly appearance, who
glanced from Miss Ringrose to her companion with an air of severity.
Patty had reddened a little.

"What are _you_ doing here at this time of day?" she asked familiarly.

"Oh--business--had to look up a man over here. Thought I'd speak a word
as I passed."

Hilliard drew aside.

"Who has opened this new shop opposite?" added the young man, beckoning
from the doorway.

A more transparent pretext for drawing Patty away could not have been
conceived; but she readily lent herself to it, and followed. The door
closed behind them. In a few minutes Patty returned alone, with rosy
cheeks and mutinous lips.

"I'm very sorry to have been in the way," said Hilliard, smiling.

"Oh, not you. It's all right. Someone I know. He can be sensible enough
when he likes, but sometimes he's such a silly there's no putting up
with him. Have you heard the new waltz--the Ballroom Queen?"

She sat down and rattled over this exhilarating masterpiece.

"Thank you," said Hilliard. "You play very cleverly."

"Oh, so can anybody--that's nothing."

"Does Miss Madeley play at all?"

"No. She's always saying she wishes she could but I tell her, what does
it matter? She knows no end of things that I don't, and I'd a good deal
rather have that."

"She reads a good deal, I suppose?"

"Oh, I should think she does, just! And she can speak French."

"Indeed? How did she learn?"

"At the place where she was bookkeeper there was a young lady from
Paris, and they shared lodgings, and Eve learnt it from her. Then her
friend went to Paris again, and Eve wanted very much to go with her,
but she didn't see how to manage it. Eve," she added, with a laugh, "is
always wanting to do something that's impossible."

A week later, Hilliard again called at the music-shop, and talked for
half an hour with Miss Ringrose, who had no fresh news from Eve. His
visits were repeated at intervals of a few days, and at length, towards
the end of June,