ross. I wondered if Mr. Hamilton could really have said it. I
determined that I would ask him on the first opportunity.

'It was a very injudicious proceeding,' went on Miss Darrell smoothly.
'Gladys was to blame, of course; but still, if you remember, I told you
how delicate she was, and how we dreaded night air for her: young people
are so careless of their health, but of course, as Giles said, we thought
she would be safe with you. You see, Giles looks upon you in the
character of nurse, Miss Garston, and forgets you are young too. "Depend
upon it, they have forgotten the time," I said to him: "when two girls
are chattering their secrets to each other, they are not likely to
remember anything so sublunary." You should have seen Giles's expression
of lordly disgust when I said that.'

'I should rather have heard Mr. Hamilton's answer.'

'Don't be too sure of that,' returned Miss Darrell, in a mocking voice
that somehow recalled my dream. 'I am afraid it would not please you.
Giles is no flatterer. He said he thought you would have been far too
sensible for that sort of nonsense, but that one never knew, and that it
was not only young and pretty girls like Gladys who could be romantic,
and for all your staid looks you were not Methuselah: rather a dubious
speech, Miss Garston.'

'True!' far too dubious to be entirely palatable to my feminine pride;
but I was careful not to hint this to Miss Darrell, and she went on in
the same light jesting way.

'It is terribly hard to satisfy Giles, he is so critical; he sets
impossible standards for people, and then sneers if they do not reach
them. He had conceived rather a high opinion of you, Miss Garston. He
told me one day that he would be glad for you to be intimate with his
sisters, as they would only learn good from you, and that he hoped that
I would encourage your visits. I trust that he has not changed his
opinion since then; but Giles is so odd when people disappoint him. I
said last night that we would invite you for to-morrow, and then you
and Gladys could finish your talk; but he was as cross as possible, and
begged that I would invite no one for Thursday, as he was very busy, and
Gladys must find another opportunity for her talk. There, how I am
chattering on!--and perhaps I ought not to have said all that; but I
thought you would wonder at our want of neighbourliness, and of course we
cannot expect you to understand Giles's odd temper: it is a great pity
he has