account of the people and things he had
seen during his absence from home so entertaining that, in his presence,
his aunt breathed a new atmosphere, the life-giving qualities of which
were felt as beneficial to every member of the household at The Bow.

Mrs. Champney took note that he never asked for Aileen. If the girl were
there when he ran in for afternoon tea on the terrace or an hour's chat
in the evening,--sometimes it happened that the day saw him three times
at Champ-au-Haut--her presence to all appearance afforded him only an
opportunity to tease her goodnaturedly; he delighted in her repartee.
Mrs. Champney, keenly observant, failed to detect in the girl's frank
joyousness the least self-consciousness; she was just her own merry self
with him, and the "give and take" between them afforded Mrs. Champney a
fund of amusement.

On the evening of his departure for New York, she was witness to their
merry leave-taking. Afterwards she summoned Octavius to the library.

"You may bring all the mail for the house hereafter to me, Octavius; now
that I am feeling so much stronger, I shall gradually resume my
customary duties in the household. You need not give any of the mail to
Aileen to distribute--I'll do it after to-night."

"What the devil is she up to now!" Octavius said to himself as he left
the room.

But no letter from New York came for Aileen. Mrs. Champney tried another
tack: the next time her nephew came to Flamsted, later on in the autumn,
she asked him to write her in detail concerning his intimacy with her
cousins, the Van Ostends, and of their courtesies to him. Champney,
nothing loath--always keeping in mind the fact that it was well to keep
on the right side of Aunt Meda--wrote her all she desired to know. What
he wrote was retailed faithfully to Aileen; but the frequent dinners at
the Van Ostends', and the prospective coming-out reception and ball to
be given for Alice and scheduled for the late winter, called forth from
the eagerly listening girl only ejaculations of delight and pleasant
reminiscence of the first time she had seen the little girl dressed for
a party. If, inwardly she asked herself the question why Alice Van
Ostend had dropped all her childish interest in her whom she had been
the means of sending to Flamsted, why she no longer inquired for her,
her common sense was apt to answer the question satisfactorily. Aileen
Armagh was keen-eyed and quick-witted, possessing, without actual
e