is either good, better, or best, mother.
But it seems to me----"

She stopped to study the Madame's sightless countenance, until that lady
asked, laughingly,

"Well, what has cut you off, child? I imagine you suspended in mid-air."

Camille joined in the laugh, but not too heartily.

"I was going to say, it seems to me there's something more than business
in it all, ma mere."

Madame Bonnivel looked up quickly.

"Are you justified in saying that, daughter?"

"I don't know. I only spoke of the way in which it strikes me. There
now! He's coming out, and Joyce with him. She has on her new jacket and
her best walking hat. I do verily believe they are going into the city.
And I was going myself this afternoon, then gave it up--how provoking!
She looks odd, Joyce does."

"How, odd?"

"Well, excited perhaps. She doesn't seem to see, or think, of anything
but just what she is doing. I wonder if anything has happened, or if
it's just being with him?"

"Camille, dear, is it quite the thing to stand and comment on your
neighbor, so?"

"Why, it's only Joyce, mother. And I won't any longer. She's out of
sight now, anyway, and gone straight toward the station, too. But, I
will maintain, she consults twice as much with that manager lately as
with you, mother. You know that as well as I do."

A slight contraction of the Madame's smooth brow proved that the shaft
had hit.

"Yes, that is probable enough. It isn't to be wondered at, either. He is
her manager, and an excellent one. Camille, did you say Leon enclosed a
note to Joyce in his last letter to you?"

The girl's face broke into a mischievous grin. "What made you think of
that just now, dear? Yes he did, but it was a short one, and she didn't
show it to me. I wish he would come home!"

The Madame sighed.

"So do I. After all, what prospects in life has a naval officer without
private property? He must always be gone from home, where he may be
exposed to unknown dangers. He can scarcely hope to form family ties."

"Humph! Joyce's husband needn't be in the navy, if she doesn't like to
have him, mother."

"Hush, child, don't be absurd! They are like brother and sister."

"But they are not brother and sister, and I'm glad of it--if that Dalton
will keep his distance. I don't know but it's my duty to make up to him,
myself."

"Camille! Don't be coarse."

"Coarse! You ought to hear most of the girls talk. Well, good-by. I told
Joyce I'd go and tend library t