l you?" she asked with some concern.

"He said that you were here, visiting the Merrills, among other things,
and said that you knew me."

The "other things" Mr. Browne had said were interesting, but flippant. He
had seen Bob at a college club and declared that he had met a witch of a
country girl at the Merrills. He couldn't make her out, because she had
refused to see him every time he called again. He had also repeated
Cynthia's remark about Bob's father not being quite the biggest man in
his part of the country, and ventured the surmise that she was the
daughter of a rival mill owner.

"Why didn't you let me know you were in Boston?" said Bob, reproachfully.

"Why should I?" asked Cynthia, and she could not resist adding, "Didn't
you find it out when you went to Brampton--to see me?"

"Well," said he, getting fiery red, "the fact is--I didn't go to
Brampton."

"I'm glad you were sensible enough to take my advice, though I suppose
that didn't make any difference. But--from the way you spoke, I should
have thought nothing could have kept you away."

"To tell you the truth," said Bob, "I'd promised to visit a fellow named
Broke in my class, who lives in New York. And I couldn't get out of it.
His sister, by the way, is in Miss Sadler's. I suppose you know her. But
if I'd thought you'd see me, I should have gone to Brampton, anyway. You
were so down on me in Washington."

"It was very good of you to take the trouble to come to see me here.
There must be a great many girls in Boston you have to visit."

He caught the little note of coolness in her voice. Cynthia was asking
herself whether, if Mr. Browne had not seen fit to give a good report of
her, he would have come at all. He would have come, certainly. It is to
be hoped that Bob Worthington's attitude up to this time toward Cynthia
has been sufficiently defined by his conversation and actions. There had
been nothing serious about it. But there can be no question that Mr.
Browne's openly expressed admiration had enhanced her value in his eyes.

"There's no girl in Boston that I care a rap for," he said.

"I'm relieved to hear it," said Cynthia, with feeling.

"Are you really?"

"Didn't you expect me to be, when you said it?"

He laughed uncomfortably.

"You've learned more than one thing since you've been in the city," he
remarked, "I suppose there are a good many fellows who come here all the
time."

"Yes, there are," she said demurely.

"Well,"