to go to sleep and have done
with it all. It was as if the fabric of my make-believe had been rent
asunder.

"It is very good of you," I answered politely--"Yes--say what you
think."

Her tact is immense--she plunged straight into the subject without
further imputation of sympathy,--her voice, full of inflections of
interest and friendliness, her constrained self-control laid aside for
the time. She spoke so intelligently, showing trained critical
faculties--and at last my numbness began gradually to melt, and I could
not help some return of sensation. There may have been soothing syrup in
the fact that she must have been interested in the work, or she could
not have dissected it chapter by chapter, point by point, as she was
doing.

She grew animated as we discussed things, and once unconsciously took
off her glasses--It was like the sun coming out after days of storm
clouds--her beautiful, beautiful blue eyes!--My "heart gave a bound"--(I
believe that is the way to express what I mean!)--I felt a strange
emotion of excitement and pleasure--I had not time to control my
admiration, I expect,--for she took fright and instantly replaced them,
a bright flush in her cheeks--and went on talking in a more reserved
way--Alas!--

Of course then I realized that she does not wear the glasses for any
reason of softening light or of defective sight, but simply to hide
those blue stars and make herself unattractive--.

How mysterious it all is!--

I wish I had been able to conceal the fact that I had noticed that the
glasses were off--Another day I would certainly have taken advantage of
this moment and would have tried to make her confess the reason of her
wearing them; but some odd quality in me prevented me from reaping any
advantage from this situation, so I let the chance pass.--Perhaps she
was grateful to me, for she warmed up a little again.

I began to feel that I might write the fool of a book right over from
the beginning--and suggested to her that we should take it in detail.

She acquiesced--.

Then it suddenly struck me that she had not only spoken of style in
writing, of method in book making--but had shown an actual knowledge of
the subject of the furniture itself.--How could little Miss Sharp, a
poverty stricken typist, be familiar with William and Mary furniture?
She has obviously not "seen better days," and only taken up a
stenographic business lately, because such proficiency as she shows, not
only i