t do, you know,' said the young man, half-vexed and
half-laughing, but wholly determined not to be kept at a distance in
this manner. 'I am not going to sit down, if you are going to treat me
like that.'

'Treat you how?'

'Why, as if I were a stranger, that you didn't care a pin about. What's
the matter, Queen Esther?'

Esther was silent. Pitt was half-indignant; and then he caught the
shimmer of something like moisture in the eyes, which were looking away
from him to the fire, and his mood changed.

'What is it, Esther?' he said kindly. 'Take a seat, your majesty, and
I'll do the same. I see there is some talking to be done here.'

He took the girl's hand and put her in her chair, and himself drew up
another near. 'Now what's the matter, Esther? Have you forgotten me?'

'No,' she said. 'But I thought--perhaps--you had forgotten me.'

'What made you think that?'

'You were gone away,' she said, hesitating; 'you were busy; papa said'--

'What did he say?'

'He said, probably I would never see you much more.'

But here the tears came to view undeniably; welled up, and filled the
eyes, and rolled over. Esther brushed them hastily away.

'And I hadn't the decency to write to you? Had that something to do
with it?'

'I thought--if you _had_ remembered me, you would perhaps have written,
just a little word,' Esther confessed, with some hesitation and
difficulty. Pitt was more touched and sorry than he would have supposed
before that such a matter could make him.

'Look here, Esther,' he said. 'There are two or three things I want you
to take note of. The first is, that you must never judge by
appearances.'

'Why not?' asked Esther, considering him and this statement together.

'Because they are deceptive. They mislead.'

'Do they?'

'Very frequently.'

'What is one to judge by, then?'

'Depends. In this case, by your knowledge of the person concerned.'

Esther looked at him, and a warmer shine came into her eye.

'Yes,' she said, 'I thought it was not like you to forget. But then,
papa said I would not be likely to see much more of you--ever'--(Esther
got the words out with some difficulty, without, however, breaking
down)--'and I thought, I had to get accustomed to doing without
you--and I had better do it.'

'_Why_ should you not see much more of me?' Pitt demanded energetically.

'You would be going away.'

'And coming back again!'

'But going to England, perhaps.'

'Who said that?'