rkham felt that there had
been a change. He was not the same man who had come with her to the
meeting of the club, but she was not a woman to relinquish easily a
conquest or a half-conquest, and she called to her aid all the art of a
strong and cultivated mind. She was bold and original in her methods,
and did not leave the subject of Lucia Catherwood, but praised her,
though now and then with slight reservations, letting fall the inference
that she was her good friend and would be a better one if she could.
Such use did she make of her gentle and unobtrusive sympathy that
Prescott felt his heart warming once more to this handsome and
accomplished woman.

"You will come to see me again?" she said at the door, letting a little
hand linger a few moments in his.

"I fear that I may be sent at once to the front."

"But if you are not you will come?" she persisted.

"Yes," said Prescott, and bade her good-night.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE SECRETARY AND THE LADY

The chief visitor to the little house in the cross street two days later
was James Sefton, the agile Secretary, who was in a fine humour with
himself and did not take the trouble to conceal it. Much that conduced
to his satisfaction had occurred, and the affairs that concerned him
most were going well. The telegrams sent by him from the Wilderness to a
trusty agent at an American seaport and forwarded thence by mail to
London and Paris had been answered, and the replies were of a nature
most encouraging. Moreover, the people here in Richmond in whose
fortunes he was interested were conducting themselves in a manner that
he wished. Therefore the Secretary was pleasant.

He was received by Lucia Catherwood in the little parlour where Prescott
had often sat. She was grave and pale, as if she suffered, and there was
no touch of warmth in the greeting that she gave the Secretary. But he
did not appear to notice it, although he inquired after the health of
herself and Miss Grayson, all in the manner of strict formality. She sat
down and waited there, grave and quiet, watching him with calm, bright
eyes.

The Secretary, too, was silent for a few moments, surveying the woman
who sat opposite him, so cool and so composed. He felt once more the
thrill of involuntary admiration that she always aroused in him.

"It is a delicate business on which I come to you, Miss Catherwood," he
said. "I wish to speak of Miss Harley and my suit there; it is not
prospering, as yo