tonians, would not make her assistance less welcome if the danger
were real. She herself had a nervous dread, but she had that about
everything; still, Adeline had perhaps seen something, and what in the
world did she mean by her reference to Verena's having had secret
meetings? When pressed on this point, Mrs. Luna could only say that she
didn't pretend to give definite information, and she wasn't a spy
anyway, but that the night before he had positively flaunted in her face
his admiration for the girl, his enthusiasm for her way of standing up
there. Of course he hated her ideas, but he was quite conceited enough
to think she would give them up. Perhaps it was all directed at
_her_--as if she cared! It would depend a good deal on the girl herself;
certainly, if there was any likelihood of Verena's being affected, she
should advise Olive to look out. She knew best what to do; it was only
Adeline's duty to give her the benefit of her own impression, whether
she was thanked for it or not. She only wished to put her on her guard,
and it was just like Olive to receive such information so coldly; she
was the most disappointing woman she knew.

Miss Chancellor's coldness was not diminished by this rebuke; for it had
come over her that, after all, she had never opened herself at that rate
to Adeline, had never let her see the real intensity of her desire to
keep the sort of danger there was now a question of away from Verena,
had given her no warrant for regarding her as her friend's keeper; so
that she was taken aback by the flatness of Mrs. Luna's assumption that
she was ready to enter into a conspiracy to circumvent and frustrate the
girl. Olive put on all her majesty to dispel this impression, and if she
could not help being aware that she made Mrs. Luna still angrier, on the
whole, than at first, she felt that she would much rather disappoint her
than give herself away to her--especially as she was intensely eager to
profit by her warning!

XXX

Mrs. Luna would have been still less satisfied with the manner in which
Olive received her proffered assistance had she known how many
confidences that reticent young woman might have made her in return.
Olive's whole life now was a matter for whispered communications; she
felt this herself, as she sought the privacy of her own apartment after
her interview with her sister. She had for the moment time to think;
Verena having gone out with Mr. Burrage, who had made an ap