downstairs, when the mistress of the house was out of the
room and Rex came in to take her place. Edna was reported to be shy,
but in this instance it was Norah who was tongue-tied, and the other who
made the advances. It is so extremely difficult to speak to a person at
whom one is forbidden to look. Norah fixed her eyes on Edna's brooch,
and said, "Yes, oh yes, she was fond of skating." Questioned a little
further, she gave a rapid glance so far upward as to include a mouth and
chin, and was so much abashed by her own temerity that she contradicted
herself hopelessly, and stammered out a ridiculous statement to the
effect that she never used a bicycle, that is to say always--when it was
fine. Edna sat silent, dismayed at the reality of the sprightly girl of
whom she had heard so much, and it did not add to Norah's comfort to
hear unmistakable sounds of chuckling from the background. She darted
an angry glance at Rex, scented mischief in his twitching smile, and
turned at bay to stare fixedly into Edna's face. A broad forehead, thin
cheeks, a delicate pink and white complexion, dark grey eyes, wide open
with curiosity, but as free from any disfigurement about which their
owner could be "sensitive" as those of the visitor herself.

"Oh--oh!" gasped Norah. Rex burst into a roar of laughter, and Edna
pleaded eagerly to be told of the reason of their excitement.

"He told me I was not to look at you. He told me--there was something--
wrong--with your eyes; that you didn't like people to stare at you. I--
I was afraid to move," panted Norah in indignation.

"Something wrong with my eyes! But there isn't, is there? They are all
right?" cried Edna in alarm, opening the maligned eyes to about twice
their usual size, and staring at Norah in beseeching fashion. "How
_could_ he say anything so untrue!"

"I never said there was anything `wrong.' I was very particular how I
put it. I said there was `something' about your eyes, and that you were
sensitive about meeting strangers, and did not like to be stared at.
All quite true, isn't it? It's not my fault if Norah chose to think you
squinted," declared Rex, jetting the best of the argument as usual, and
nodding his head at Norah with the air of triumph which she found so
exasperating.

Edna looked from one to the other in startled fashion, as though she
were afraid that such flashing looks must be the commencement of a
quarrel, and drew a sigh of relief when No