t write to Isobel," he exclaimed setting his lips.

"But you may later," she said smiling. "At any rate you will promise,
won't you?"

"Yes, if you wish it, Miss Ogilvy, though I can't see what it matters.
That kind of nonsense often comes into my head when I touch old things.
Isobel says that it is because I have too much imagination."

"Imagination! Ah! what is imagination? Well, goodbye, Godfrey, the
carriage will come for you at the same time next Sunday. Perhaps, too,
I shall see you before then, as I am going to call upon Madame Boiset."

Then he went, feeling rather uncomfortable, and yet interested, though
what it was that interested him he did not quite know. That night he
dreamed that Madame Riennes stood by his bed watching him with her
burning eyes. It was an unpleasant dream.

He kept his word. When the Boiset family, especially Madame,
cross-examined him as to the details of his visit to Miss Ogilvy, he
merely described the splendours of that opulent establishment and the
intellectual character of its guests. Of their mystic attributes he
said nothing at all, only adding that Miss Ogilvy proposed to do
herself the honour of calling at the Maison Blanche, as the Boisets'
house was called.

About the middle of the week Miss Ogilvy arrived and, as Madame had
taken care to be at home in expectation of her visit, was entertained
to tea. Afterwards she visited the observatory, which interested her
much, and had a long talk with the curious old Pasteur, who also
interested her in his way, for as she afterwards remarked to Godfrey,
one does not often meet an embodiment of human goodness and charity.
When he replied that the latter quality was lacking to the Pasteur
where Roman Catholics were concerned, she only smiled and said that
every jewel had its flaw; nothing was quite perfect in the world.

In the end she asked Madame and Juliette to come to lunch with her,
leaving out Godfrey, because, as she said, she knew that he would be
engaged at his studies with the Pasteur. She explained also that she
did not ask them to come with him on Sunday because they would be taken
up with their religious duties, a remark at which Juliette made what
the French call a "mouth," and Madame smiled faintly.

In due course she and her daughter went to lunch and returned
delighted, having found themselves fellow-guests of some of the most
notable people in Lucerne, though not those whom Miss Ogilvy
entertained on Sundays. N