rdyce, then? That you are out of temper?'
she asked, with a sly gaiety which became her well, though it only
further exasperated him.

'You can say anything you like, I am very sorry indeed that my opinion
is of so little value in your eyes, Gladys, and I ask your pardon if I
have presumed too much in offering you a crumb of advice.'

'Oh, don't be cross because we don't happen to agree on that particular
point,' she said sunnily. 'Each individual is surely entitled to his
opinion. I am not cross because you would not agree with me. Come away
up-stairs.'

'No, I'm not coming up to-night. Make my apologies to them. Gladys, upon
my word, you are perfectly bewitching. I wish you knew how passionately
I love you. I don't believe you care a tithe as much for me as I do for
you.'

He would have held her again, but she moved away from him, and her face
did not brighten as it ought to have done at such a lover-like speech.

'Will you promise me one thing, Gladys, before I go?' he pleaded, and he
had never been more in earnest in his life. 'Promise me that if anybody
speaks ill of me to you, you will at least give me a chance to clear
myself before you condemn me.'

'Oh, I can promise that fast enough, because nobody ever speaks ill of
you to me. It is quite the reverse, I assure you. I have to listen to
your praises all day long,' she said, with a teasing smile. 'You ought
to show your gratitude for such disinterested kindness by coming up to
the ladies.'

'I'm not going up to-night,' he reiterated. 'Give them my kind regards.
Are you really off?'

'I must, if you won't come.'

He held open the door for her, and as she passed out, stole another kiss
with all a lover's passion, telling himself it might be the last. But it
did not make her pulses thrill nor her heart beat more quickly, and she
saw him depart without a regret.

'You don't mean to say that is George away?' they cried, when the outer
hall door closed, and almost immediately Gladys entered the drawing-room
alone.

'Yes, he has gone,' Gladys answered calmly.

'What have you been doing to him to set him off like that?' asked Mina.
'Have you had a quarrel?'

'No,' replied Gladys innocently; 'but I think he is rather cross.'

Mrs. Fordyce shook her finger reprovingly at the girl, and said
regretfully,--

'My dear, you are incorrigible. I could almost regret Henrietta
Bonnemain's marriage, because she is the only woman in this world who
could have man