factory
roofs.

"As much as you've time for. Cicely doesn't need me this afternoon, and
I can't tell when I shall see Westmore again."

Her words fell on him with a chill. His smile faded, and he looked away
for a moment.

"But I hope Cicely will be here often," he said.

"Oh, I hope so too," she rejoined, with seeming unconsciousness of any
connection between the wish and her previous words.

Amherst hesitated. He had meant to propose a visit to the old Eldorado
building, which now at last housed the long-desired night-schools and
nursery; but since she had spoken he felt a sudden indifference to
showing her anything more. What was the use, if she meant to leave
Cicely, and drift out of his reach? He could get on well enough without
sympathy and comprehension, but his momentary indulgence in them made
the ordinary taste of life a little flat.

"There must be more to see?" she continued, as they turned back toward
the village; and he answered absently: "Oh, yes--if you like."

He heard the change in his own voice, and knew by her quick side-glance
that she had heard it too.

"Please let me see everything that is compatible with my getting a car
to Hanaford by six."

"Well, then--the night-school next," he said with an effort at
lightness; and to shake off the importunity of his own thoughts he added
carelessly, as they walked on: "By the way--it seems improbable--but I
think I saw Dr. Wyant yesterday in a Westmore car."

She echoed the name in surprise. "Dr. Wyant? Really! Are you sure?"

"Not quite; but if it wasn't he it was his ghost. You haven't heard of
his being at Hanaford?"

"No. I've heard nothing of him for ages."

Something in her tone made him return her side-glance; but her voice, on
closer analysis, denoted only indifference, and her profile seemed to
express the same negative sentiment. He remembered a vague Lynbrook
rumour to the effect that the young doctor had been attracted to Miss
Brent. Such floating seeds of gossip seldom rooted themselves in his
mind, but now the fact acquired a new significance, and he wondered how
he could have thought so little of it at the time. Probably her somewhat
exaggerated air of indifference simply meant that she had been bored by
Wyant's attentions, and that the reminder of them still roused a slight
self-consciousness.

Amherst was relieved by this conclusion, and murmuring: "Oh, I suppose
it can't have been he," led her rapidly on to the Eldorado.