t you will presently. It will very shortly turn to
a drenching shower; that especial sort of cloud yonder," waving his stick
toward the west, "always indicates a drenching shower. Oh," in answer to
her incredulous smile, "you can't tell me anything about weather
conditions, I've lived too much in the open not to be thoroughly
conversant of them. So you see I know what I'm talking about when I say
that a woman who would leave a man on a door-step on an afternoon like
this is the kind that would shut up the house and go away for the summer
leaving the cat to forage for itself."

"But think of your nice warm apartment, and the subways and street-cars
and taxicabs and hansoms which will swiftly bear you thither."

His glance was a reproachful protest. "Every form of conveyance you have
mentioned is drafty. Coming from the hot climates I have lived in so
long--" He paused and coughed tentatively. "But what is the use of all
this thrust and parry?" pressing his advantage. "Are you or are you not
going to give me a cup of tea?"

At this very direct question, the laughter, the gaiety vanished from her
face. She looked thoughtful and seemed to consider so trivial a matter
quite unnecessarily. Then, apparently arriving at a sudden decision, she
said with a sort of sweet, prim courtesy: "I should be very glad to have
you come in with me and meet my mother. I think it is very probable that
we will find Kitty, and perhaps Bea, there before us."

"Thank you very much," he said, with equal formality. "I very much
appreciate your letting me come."

The remainder of their walk he found delightful. Marcia was pleased to
throw off, in a measure, the reserve, the absorption which seemed almost
habitual with her, and she chatted with him frankly, occasionally even
playfully, as they strolled along.

"Why," he asked her curiously, "did you put that hypothetical question to
me that evening at the Gildersleeve, about the young woman living in the
country and sending her astral body on little visits to town?"

"I don't know, I'm sure," she laughed. "It often amuses me to indulge in
little fanciful flights like that."

"I think you were purposely trying to mystify me," he said. "You saw that
I was going to be a bore and you pretended to be a ghost, trusting to
your noiseless and mysterious manner of appearing and disappearing to
work on my fears and frighten me off. And, truth to tell, there is
something uncanny about your peculiarly sou