it's that good-looking parson in the village. There's no
other man whom she seems to know so well. I cannot say that you have
taken very great care of her, Florence."

"Are you really blind, or are you pretending?" said Mrs. Vane, looking
at him with calm curiosity, "You are not quite such a fool as you make
yourself out to be, are you? My dear Hubert, are you not aware that you
are a singularly handsome and attractive man, and that you have laid
siege to the poor child's heart ever since your first arrival here last
autumn?"

Hubert started from his seat as if he had been stung.

"Impossible!" he cried.

"Not at all impossible. She has seen few men in her short life--she has
been very carefully guarded, in spite of your sneer at my want of
caution--and the attentions of a man like yourself were quite new to
her. What could you expect?"

"Attentions!" groaned Hubert. "I never paid her any attentions, save as
a cousin and a friend."

"Exactly; but she did not understand."

There was a short silence. He stood with his arm on the mantelpiece,
looking through the window at the snow-covered landscape outside. His
face had turned pale, and his lips were firmly set. Presently he said,
in a low tone--

"You must be mistaken. Surely she can never have let you know what her
feelings are on such a point? You say that she does not confide in you.
How can you know?"

"There are other ways of reading a girl's heart as well as a man's
coarse way of having everything in black and white," said Flossy
composedly. "I am sure of it. She is in love with you, and that is why
she looks so ill."

"It must not be! You must let her know--gently, but decidedly--that I am
not the man for her--that there is an unsurmountable barrier between
us."

"What is it? Are you married already?"

"Florence"--there was a sound of anguish in his voice, "how could I
marry a girl whose father I----"

"Hush, hush! For mercy's sake, be quiet! You should never say such
things--never think them even. Walls have ears sometimes, and spoken
words cannot be recalled. Never say that, even to me. At the same time,
I do not see the obstacle."

"Florence! Well, I might expect it from you. You have married Sydney
Vane's brother!"

She did not wince. She sat steadily regarding him over the tips of her
rose-colored feather fan.

"And you," she said, "will marry Sydney Vane's daughter."

"God keep me from committing such a sin!"

"Hubert, this is mere