ted, tempering her severity
with understanding. "You really had an opportunity. Your face interested
her, and your kindness to little Karen. She always likes people who are
kind to little Karen."

It was pleasantly open to him now to say: "Little Karen has been kind to
me."

"A dear, good child," said Mrs. Forrester. "I am glad that you talked to
her. You pleased Mercedes in that."

"She is a delightful girl," said Gregory.

He now took his departure. But he was again to encounter Miss Woodruff.
She was in the hall, talking French to a sallow little woman in black,
evidently a ladies' maid, who had the oppressed, anxious countenance and
bright, melancholy eyes of a monkey.

"_Allons_," Miss Woodruff was saying in encouraging tones, while she
paused on the first step of the stairs, her hand on the banister; "_ce
n'est pas une cause perdue, Louise; nous arrangerons la chose_."

"_Ah, Mademoiselle, c'est que Madame ne sera pas contente, pas contente
du tout quand elle verra la robe_," was Louise's mournful reply as
Gregory came up.

"I hoped we might go on with our talk," he said. He still addressed her
somewhat as one addresses a friendly child; "I wanted to hear the end of
that story about the Hungarian student."

"He died, in Davos, poor boy," said Miss Woodruff, looking down at him
from her slightly higher place, while Louise stood by dejectedly. "He
wrote to my guardian and we went to him there and she played to him. It
made him so happy. We were with him till he died."

"Shall I see you again?" Gregory asked. "Will you be here for any time?
Are you staying in London?"

"My guardian goes to America next week--did you not know?--with Miss
Scrotton."

"Oh yes, Eleanor told me. And you're not going too? You're not to see
America yet?"

"No; not this time. I go to Cornwall."

"You are to be alone with Mrs. Talcott all the winter?"

"You know Mrs. Talcott?" Miss Woodruff exclaimed in pleased
astonishment.

"No; I don't know her; Eleanor told me about her, too."

"It is not being alone," said Miss Woodruff. "She and I have a most
happy time together. I thought it strange that you should know Mrs.
Talcott. I never met anyone who knew her unless they knew my guardian
very well."

"And when are you coming back?"

"From Cornwall? I do not know. I am afraid we shall not see each
other--oh, for a very long time," said Miss Woodruff. She smiled. She
gave him her hand, leaning down to him from behind the ba