Toni's
illness which first opened Eva's eyes to the seriousness of his
devotion. She had seen from the beginning that he admired the girl, that
he listened attentively to her lightest word; but she had not realized
that Mr. Dowson was really and irrevocably in love with Toni; and it is
only fair to the young man to say that he was quite unconscious of his
self-betrayal.

He had not been able to hide his anxiety on hearing of Toni's
indisposition. With all the exaggeration of true love he immediately
feared the worst; and even Eva's callous heart was touched by his
incapacity to ask for news on the day of her second visit alone.

He had stammered out a broken question, exhibiting a rather absurd
concern over an ordinary slight chill; and when Eva replied casually
that she had heard Toni was going on very well, she noticed, with a
half-contemptuous amusement, that he had to turn aside and wipe away the
drops which glistened on his high forehead.

It was during that second visit that an idea came to Eva, bringing a
malicious little smile to her lips in the intervals of Leonard's
ministrations.

"You've known Toni--Mrs. Rose--a long time, I suppose?" She asked the
question casually as she put on her hat before the glass. "You were
friends before her marriage, weren't you?"

"Yes. I had the pleasure of knowing Mrs. Rose some years before that."

"Really? You knew her as a child?"

"She was just fifteen when I saw her first," said Leonard, his voice
husky with the emotion called up by the reminiscence. "It was her
birthday, I remember, and one of her cousins asked me to go home to tea
with him. They were great people for birthdays, her relations."

"Were they?" Eva adjusted her veil carefully. "Friendly, sociable sort
of people, I suppose. Was Mr. Rose there that night?"

"Mr. Rose?" For a moment Leonard, lost in dreams of the past, stared
uncomprehendingly. Then he pulled himself together vigorously. "No, Mr.
Rose was not there in those days. He--he came on the scene much later
than that."

"Did he? Was he also a friend of Mrs. Rose's cousins?"

"Oh, no." Mr. Dowson became emphatic. "Nothing of that sort. Toni--Miss
Gibbs she was then--met him in the course of business. As a matter of
fact, she was his secretary. And then he fell in love with her; and the
next thing was that they were married." His tone was dreary.

"Ah, well, I don't wonder he fell in love." Eva watched him closely
through the mirror as she