her; Mr. Jardine did not get any talk at all with
Tante. Oh, that should have been managed."

But Mrs. Forrester, though granting to his supposed plight a glance of
sympathetic concern, was in a hurry to get home and he was, again,
spared the necessity of a graceless confession. He piloted them through
the crowd, saw them--Miss Woodruff, Mrs. Forrester and Victor,--fitted
into Mrs. Forrester's brougham, and then himself got into a hansom. It
was still the atmosphere of the dream that hovered about him as he
decided at what big fruit-shop he should stop to order a box of
nectarines. He wanted her to find them waiting for her in Cornwall. And
the very box of nectarines, the globes of sombre red fruit nested in
cotton-wool, seemed part of the dream. He knew that he was behaving
curiously; but she was, after all, the little Hans Andersen heroine and
one needn't think of ordinary customs where she was concerned.

CHAPTER VIII

"Les Solitudes,
"February 2nd.

"Dear Mr. Jardine,--How very, very kind of you. I could hardly
believe it when Mrs. Talcott told me that a box was here for me. I
could think of nothing to explain it. Then when we opened it and
saw, row upon row, those beautiful things like pearls in a
casket--it made me feel quite dazed. Nectarines are not things that
you expect to have, in rows, all to yourself. Mrs. Talcott and I
ate two at once, standing there in the hall where we opened them;
we couldn't wait for chairs and plates and silver knives; things
taste best of all when eaten greedily, I think, and I think that
these will all be eaten greedily. It is so kind of you. I thank you
very much.--Yours sincerely,

"Karen Woodruff."

* * * * *

"Les Solitudes,
"February 9th.

"Dear Mr. Jardine,--It is most kind of you to write me this nice
note and to send me these reviews. I often have to miss the things
that come out in the reviews about my guardian, for the
press-cuttings go to her. Mr. Drew says many clever things, does he
not; he understands music and he understands--at least almost--what
my guardian is to music; but he does not, of course, understand
her. He only sees the greatness and sees it made out of great
things. When one knows a great person intimately one sees all the
little things that make them great; often such very little t