at sense, I consider it very beautiful."

"Thank you," Kate replied, with a low, sweeping courtesy to conceal the
blushes which she felt mantling her cheeks, not so much at his words as
at what she read in his eyes; "that is the most delicate compliment I
ever heard. I know I shall not receive another so delicious this whole
evening, and to think of prefacing it with an apology!"

"I am glad to hear that voice," said Darrell, possessing himself of one
little gloved hand and surveying his companion critically, from the
charmingly coiffed head to the dainty white slipper peeping from beneath
her skirt; "the voice and the eyes seem about all that is left of the
little girl I had known and loved."

She regarded him silently, with a gracious little smile, but with
deepening color and quickening pulse.

He continued: "She has seemed different of late, somehow; she has eluded
me so often I have felt as though she were in some way slipping away
from me, and now I fear I have lost her altogether. How is it?"

Darrell gently raised the sweet face so that he looked into the clear
depths of the brown eyes.

"Tell me, Kathie dear, has she drifted away from me?"

For an instant the eyes were hidden under the curling lashes; then they
lifted as she replied, with an enigmatical smile,--

"Not so far but that you may follow, if you choose."

Darrell bowed his head and his lips touched the golden-brown hair.

"Sweetheart," he said, in low tones, scarcely above a whisper, "I
follow; if I overtake her, what then? Will I find her the same as in the
past?"

Her heart was beating wildly with a new, strange joy; she longed to get
away by herself and taste its sweetness to the full.

"The same, and yet not the same," she answered, slowly; then, before he
could say more, she added, lightly, as a wave of laughter was borne
upward from the parlors.

"But I came to see if you were ready to go downstairs; ought we not to
join the others?"

"As you please," he replied, stooping to pick up the programme she had
dropped; "are the guests arriving yet?"

"No; it is still early, but I want to introduce you to my friends. Oh,
yes, my programme; thanks! That reminds me, I am going to ask you to put
your name down for two or three waltzes; you know," she added, smiling,
"I promised you two weeks ago some waltzes for this evening, so take
your choice."

For an instant Darrell hesitated, and the old troubled look returned to
his face.

"Y