e through with in composure, how easy it is to control the wildest
passions. A conventional smile and a stiff bow are the draperies that
veil the intensest unspoken emotions. It was under this disguise that
Miss Seymour was to greet Gerald Lawson. He went to Canton three years
ago, and before he went she had promised to marry him. She promised
one gay evening after "the German." She had been carried away by
the moment. Ever since, all through the three years, she had been
regretting it. It was a secret engagement. The untold feeling that had
prompted it had never been aired, and died very soon for want of earth
and light. To cold indifference for the man to whom she had promised
herself, had succeeded an absolute aversion. What was worse, she loved
another person. Aurelia Seymour loved Frank! This very morning the
news had reached her that the Kumshan was in from Canton. The
passengers had arrived last night; she was to meet Gerald at Mrs.
Jay's this morning.

Frank Leslie seated himself by her. She was in the midst of a calm,
cool conversation with him, when she saw a little commotion in the
other corner of the room. Every one was greeting Mr. Lawson on his
arriving home. He is making his way through the crowd; he comes to
her, he bows; Aurelia smiles.

But this was not all. He asked her if she would come into the
conservatory. She had accompanied him there. Half hid by the branches
of a camellia-tree all covered with white blossoms, she had said
coldly, "Gerald, I cannot marry you." But Gerald had not received the
word so coolly. He had burst out into passion. First he had exclaimed
in wonder, next he could not believe her.

"Would she treat him so ungenerously? Was she a heartless flirt, a
mere coquette?"

He told over his love that had been growing warmer all these three
years; of his ambition that was to be crowned by her approval; of his
lately gained wealth, valued only for her sake. Passionate words they
were, and full of intense feeling; but hidden by the camellia,
restrained and kept under from fear of observers. They were frequently
interrupted, too.

"Thank you--ninety-nine days; very quick passage. Yes, I go back next
week; no, I stay at home," were, with other sentences, thrown in, as
answers to the different questions of those who did not know what they
were interrupting.

But, at last, Aurelia broke away. Broke away! No; she accepted
Middleton's proposal to go into the coffee-room, and left Geral