l: and that's why
he loves you so dreadfully," was the answer in my mind; but I kept it
there. It might have dashed Phyllis's happiness to realize this truth.

"If I let Robert make arrangements for our marriage almost at once,
Freule Menela couldn't get him back, could she, for he would be more
bound to me than he ever was to her," said my sister.

"In that line alone lies safety," I replied. "Have you told Miss Van
Buren--your stepsister, I mean?"

"Oh yes, as soon as it happened, of course. Nell and I never have
secrets from each other--at least, we haven't till lately. I thought she
would have guessed, but do you know, she _didn't_? She fancied, from
things I'd said, that I was making up my mind to--that is, to try and
learn to care for _another person_. She disapproved of my doing that, it
seems, which is the reason she's been so odd. Not that she didn't
consider us suited to each other--the other one and I--but she thought,
with all his faults, he was so much of a man that it wasn't fair for a
girl to accept his love if she had to try and learn to care for him
simply because he happened to be _there_. I see now, in the light of
this new happiness, that she was quite right. But I didn't dream then,
that the one man I could _really_ care for, could ever be more to me
than a dear friend. And a girl feels so humiliated to be thinking of a
man who's engaged to some one else. She gets the idea that the best
thing would be to occupy her mind with another man, if there's anybody
who likes her very much. And Lady MacNairne has always been hinting this
last fortnight--but, oh no, I'm not thinking what I'm saying! Even
though you are my brother, I've no right to tell you that."

"Sister, I insist that you shall tell me," I said, with all my native
fierceness. And Phyllis is not a girl to rebel, if a male person
commands.

"Well, then--but she is perhaps mistaken. I hope now that she _is_."

"In thinking what?"

"That--that Jonkheer Brederode cares more for me than for Nell."

"I wonder," said I.

"Oh course," went on Phyllis modestly, "Nell's a hundred times prettier
and more interesting than I am (though, thank goodness, Robert doesn't
think so), but she snubbed the Jonkheer so dreadfully at first, and
then, after she'd changed and been nice to him for a day or two, she got
worse than ever. At least, she hardly ever speaks to him at all. She
just keeps out of his way, and leaves him to--others. So his
self-respec