ble. Seeing that Romayne was on the
point of leaving the house, and feeling that he had paved the way
successfully for Romayne's amanuensis, he too readily assumed that there
was nothing further to be gained by remaining in the gallery. Moreover,
the interval before Penrose called at the hotel might be usefully filled
up by some wise words of advice, relating to the religious uses to which
he might turn his intercourse with his employer. Making one of his
ready and plausible excuses, he accordingly returned with Penrose to the
library--and so committed (as he himself discovered at a later time) one
of the few mistakes in the long record of his life.

In the meanwhile, Romayne was not permitted to bring his visit to a
conclusion without hospitable remonstrance on the part of Lady Loring.
She felt for Stella, with a woman's enthusiastic devotion to the
interests of true love; and she had firmly resolved that a matter so
trifling as the cultivation of Romayne's mind should not be allowed to
stand in the way of the far more important enterprise of opening his
heart to the influence of the sex.

"Stay and lunch with us," she said, when he held out his hand to bid her
good-by.

"Thank you, Lady Loring, I never take lunch."

"Well, then, come and dine with us--no party; only ourselves. Tomorrow,
and next day, we are disengaged. Which day shall it be?"

Romayne still resisted. "You are very kind. In my state of health, I am
unwilling to make engagements which I may not be able to keep."

Lady Loring was just as resolute on her side. She appealed to Stella.
"Mr. Romayne persists, my dear, in putting me off with excuses. Try if
you can persuade him."

"_I_ am not likely to have any influence, Adelaide."

The tone in which she replied struck Romayne. He looked at her. Her
eyes, gravely meeting his eyes, held him with a strange fascination. She
was not herself conscious how openly all that was noble and true in
her nature, all that was most deeply and sensitively felt in her
aspirations, spoke at that moment in her look. Romayne's face changed:
he turned pale under the new emotion that she had roused in him. Lady
Loring observed him attentively.

"Perhaps you underrate your influence, Stella?" she suggested.

Stella remained impenetrable to persuasion. "I have only been introduced
to Mr. Romayne half an hour since," she said. "I am not vain enough to
suppose that I can produce a favorable impression on any one in so shor