at I was once in love. Would you like me to tell you who I was in
love with?"

"Yes," said Olive, "if you are willing to tell me."

"Oh, I am perfectly willing," said the secretary. "It was Mr. Hemphill."

Olive turned suddenly and looked at her in amazement.

"Yes, it was Mr. Hemphill over there," said the other, speaking very
tranquilly, as if the subject were of no importance. "You see, I have
been living with the Easterfields for a long time, and in the winter we
see a good deal of Mr. Hemphill. He has to come to the house on
business, and often takes meals. He is Mr. Easterfield's private and
confidential secretary. And, somehow or other, seeing him so often, and
sometimes being his partner at cards when two were needed to make up a
game, I forgot that I was older than he, and I actually fell in love
with him. You see he has a good heart, Miss Asher; anybody could tell
that from his way with children; and I have noticed that bachelors are
often nicer with children than fathers are."

"And he?" asked Olive.

Miss Raleigh laughed a little laugh. "Oh, I did all the loving," she
answered. "He never reciprocated the least little bit, and I often
wondered why I adored him as much as I did. He was handsome, and he was
good, and he had excellent taste; he was thoroughly trustworthy in his
relations to the family, and I believe he would be equally so in all
relations of life; but all that did not account for my unconquerable
ardor, which was caused by a certain something which you know, Miss
Asher, we can't explain."

Olive tried hard not to allow any emotion to show itself in her face,
but she did not altogether succeed. "And you still--" said she.

"No, I don't," interrupted Miss Raleigh. "I love him no longer. There
came a time when all my fire froze. I discovered that there was--"

"I say, Miss Asher--" it was the voice of Claude Locker.

Olive looked around at him. "Well?" said she.

"Perhaps you have not noticed," said he, "that the tennis ground is now
in the shade, and if you don't mind walking that way--" He said a good
deal more which Miss Raleigh did not believe, understanding the young
man thoroughly, and which Olive did not hear. Her mind was very busy
with what she had just heard, which made a great impression on her. She
did not know whether she was affronted, or hurt, or merely startled.

Here was a man who loved her, a man she had loved, and one about whom
she had been questioning herself as to