he doesn't get a stronger
grip on my heart right quick it's likely to get away from him."

"Bella, dear! Don't say such things!" admonished her mother in a
grieved tone.

Isabella flew to her side and patted her cheek and kissed her brow.
"There, there, mother! Don't you know I'm just funning? Warren is the
best man in the world, even if he hasn't got bee-youtiful, caressing
brown eyes, and I love him awfully, and we're going to be married and
live happily forever after. But, all the same, Felix Brand is
perfectly lovely, and you think so too, now, don't you, mother dear!"

"We all think alike about Mr. Brand, I'm sure," she answered.

"Except Billikins," amended Henrietta, and then told them of the fox
terrier's disgraceful behavior. "It seemed so queer for him to act
that way," she added, "when he's always so friendly toward visitors
and so effusive that he usually has to be put out of the room."

"It was strange," said Mrs. Marne, "for with his pleasant voice and
gentle manner you would think Mr. Brand would be as attractive to
animals as he certainly is to people. And he must be as kind and
sweet-natured as he seems, for not one young man in a thousand would
have taken the trouble he did to give three forlorn women a little
pleasure."

Henrietta made no reply as she laughed with her mother at the lively
scolding Isabella was giving to the dog, but her thoughts were busy
with the problem of why Felix Brand had seemed so anxious for them to
go with him.

Her loyalty to her employer would not let her throw the least shade
upon their enthusiastic appreciation of his courtesy and kindness. But
her months of work at his side--she had been his secretary almost a
year--had given her an intimate knowledge of his character and of his
habits of thought and feeling.

She had learned that his habitual mental attitude was, "What is there
in this for me?" He did not indeed use just those words or give such
crude expression to his self-centeredness; but she had come to know
that personal advantage was the usual mainspring of his actions.
Presently deciding that Isabella's enlivening effect upon his mood had
inspired his desire for their company, her mind went on to busy itself
with speculation over the cause for his despondency and uneasiness.

"I believe it must have something to do with that Hugh Gordon he
mentioned, whoever he is," she thought. "For he seemed most disturbed
when speaking of him. Maybe it's some relat