em to-day. I am not going to talk
business to you this afternoon. Tell me about your visit: have you
enjoyed yourself? But I need not ask: your looks answer for you.'

'I have most certainly enjoyed myself. Aunt Philippa was so kind: indeed,
they were all good to me. Did you hear of Jill's accident, Mr. Hamilton?
No. I must tell you about it, and of Mr. Tudor's presence of mind.' And I
narrated the whole circumstance.

'It was a marvellous escape,' he returned thoughtfully. 'Poor child! she
might have fared badly. Well, Miss Garston, the green velvet gown was
very becoming.'

I looked up quickly, but there was no mockery in Mr. Hamilton's smile. He
was regarding me kindly, though his tone was a little teasing.

'I saw you in the church,' I returned quietly.

'Yes, I suppose there is a kind of magnetism in a fixed glance.
I was looking at you, trying to identify Nurse Ursula with the
elegantly-dressed woman before me, and somehow failing, when your
eyes encountered mine. Their serious disapproval most certainly
recalled Nurse Ursula with a vengeance.'

He was laughing at me now, but I determined to satisfy my curiosity.

'I was so surprised to see you there,' I replied seriously: 'you were so
strong in your denunciations of gay weddings that your presence as a
spectator at one quite startled me. Why were you there, Mr. Hamilton?'

'Do you want to know, really?' still in a teasing tone.

'Of course one always likes an answer to a question.'

'You shall have it, Miss Garston. I came to see that velvet gown.'

'Nonsense!'

'May I ask why?'

'Well, it is nonsense; as though you came for such an absurd purpose!'
But, though I answered Mr. Hamilton in this brusque fashion, I was aware
that my heart was beating rather more quickly than usual. Did he really
mean that he had come to see me? Could such a thing be possible? I began
to wish I had never put that question.

'I either came to see the gown or the wearer: upon my honour I hardly
know which. Perhaps you can tell me?' But if he expected an answer to
that he did not get it: I was only meditating how I could break off this
_tete-a-tete_ without too much awkwardness. No, I did not recognise Mr.
Hamilton a bit this afternoon: he had never talked to me after this
fashion before. I was not sure that I liked it.

'After all, I am not certain that I do not like you best in that gray
one, especially after I have picked you some roses to wear with it:
something sob