h.

"Don't you know what to say now?"

"I can't tell. That's what I want you to help me think out."

Mrs. Ellison was silent for a moment before she said, "Well, then, I
suppose we shall have to go back to the very beginning."

"Yes," assented Kitty, faintly.

"You did have a sort of fancy for him the first time you saw him, didn't
you?" asked Mrs. Ellison, coaxingly, while forcing herself to be
systematic and coherent, by a mental strain of which no idea can be
given.

"Yes," said Kitty, yet more faintly, adding, "but I can't tell just what
sort of a fancy it was. I suppose I admired him for being handsome and
stylish, and for having such exquisite manners."

"Go on," said Mrs. Ellison. "And after you got acquainted with him?"

"Why, you know we've talked that over once already, Fanny."

"Yes, but we oughtn't to skip anything now," replied Mrs. Ellison, in a
tone of judicial accuracy which made Kitty smile.

But she quickly became serious again, and said, "Afterwards I couldn't
tell whether to like him or not, or whether he wanted me to. I think he
acted very strangely for a person in--love. I used to feel so troubled
and oppressed when I was with him. He seemed always to be making himself
agreeable under protest."

"Perhaps that was just your imagination, Kitty."

"Perhaps it was; but it troubled me just the same."

"Well, and then?"

"Well, and then after that day of the Montgomery expedition, he seemed
to change altogether, and to try always to be pleasant, and to do
everything he could to make me like him. I don't know how to account for
it. Ever since then he's been extremely careful of me, and behaved--of
course without knowing it--as if I belonged to him already. Or maybe
I've imagined that too. It's very hard to tell what has really happened
the last two weeks."

Kitty was silent, and Mrs. Ellison did not speak at once. Presently she
asked, "Was his acting as if you belonged to him disagreeable?"

"I can't tell. I think it was rather presuming. I don't know why he did
it."

"Do you respect him?" demanded Mrs. Ellison.

"Why, Fanny, I've always told you that I did respect some things in
him."

Mrs. Ellison had the facts before her, and it rested upon her to sum
them up, and do something with them. She rose to a sitting posture, and
confronted her task.

"Well, Kitty, I'll tell you: I don't really know what to think. But I
can say this: if you liked him at first, and then didn't like him