led before her--the
mating of Arnswald to some charming girl whom she would herself
discover, and the life-long friendship that would ensue.

On the following afternoon therefore, when the young man put in an
appearance, he was received with unaffected cordiality.

"I have been thinking about you," Eden announced, when he found a seat.
"I am glad you came, I want you to tell me more of yourself."

"I reproached myself for having exhausted your patience last evening,"
he answered.

"Then you deserve to be punished. You go with us to the opera to-morrow,
do you not? Very good, you must dine with us first. There is a friend of
mine whom you will meet there. I want you to like her."

"If she resembles you in any way that will not be difficult."

"He begins well," mused Eden, and a layer of cordiality dropped from
her. But presently she recovered it. Arnswald had been looking in her
face, and the change in its expression had not passed unobserved.

"I mean," he continued, "that there are people that make you like them
at first sight and you, Mrs. Usselex, are one of those people. When I
left you last evening I told myself that you exhaled a sympathy which is
as rare as it is delightful. I have met few such as you. As a rule the
people I have been brought in contact with have been hard and
self-engrossed. You are among the exceptions, and it is the
exception----"

Eden interrupted him. "Now that is nonsense," she said severely. "The
people whom we can like are not as infrequent as all that. Do you mean
to tell me that there is no one for whom you really care?"

Arnswald shook his head and smiled. "No, Mrs. Usselex," he answered, "I
don't mean to say that. There are some for whom I care very much. There
is even one for whom were it necessary I would lay down life itself."

At this Eden experienced a mental start. The possibility of mating him
to some charming girl whom she was herself to discover had suddenly
become remote. But she nodded encouragingly to the confidence.

"Yes," he continued, and into his polar-eyes came a sudden flicker.
"Yes, there is one whom I have recently come to know and who is to me as
a prayer fulfilled. Were I called upon to make a sacrifice for her, no
matter what the nature of that sacrifice might be, the mere doing of it
would constitute a well-spring of delight."

Eden smiled at the dithyramb as were she listening to some fay she did
not see. Arnswald had been looking at her, but now