endship was all well enough--there could
scarcely be less than that--but the Madge he had looked forward to
meeting again as of old no longer existed. Oh, yes, she should have
admiration and exclamation points to her heart's content, but he had
come from his long exile hungry for something more and better
than young lady friends. He had long since had a surfeit of these
semi-Platonic affinities. The girl who apparently had been refusing
scores of men for his sake was more to his taste. His brother's
repugnance only irritated and incited him, and he thought, "I'll carry
out his business policy to the utmost, but away from the office I am
my own man."

As these thoughts passed through his mind, they began to impart to his
manner a tinge of gallantry, the beginning of a departure from his old
fraternal and affectionate ways. He was too well-bred to show pique
openly, or to reveal a sense of injury during the first hours of
reunion, but he already felt absolved from being very attentive to
a girl who not only had proved so conclusively that she could manage
admirably for herself, but who also had been so indifferent that she
had not needed his sympathy in her efforts or thought it worth while
to gladden him with a knowledge of her progress. He had loved her as
a sister, and had given ample proof of this. He had maintained his
affection for the Madge that he remembered. "But I have been told," he
thought, bitterly, "that the young lady before me is a 'friend.' She
has been a rather distant friend, if the logic of events counts for
anything. Not satisfied with the thousands of miles that separated us,
she has also withheld her confidence in regard to changes that would
have interested even a casual acquaintance."

Madge soon detected the changing expression of his eyes, the lessening
of simple, loving truth in his words, and while she was pained she
feared that all this and more would necessarily result from the
breaking up of their old relations. Her task was a difficult one
at best--perhaps it was impossible--nor had she set about it in
calculating policy. Their old relations could not be maintained on her
part. Even the touch of his hand had the mysterious power to send a
thrill to her very heart. Therefore she must surround herself at once
with the viewless yet impassable barriers which a woman can interpose
even by a glance.

As they rose, Graydon remarked, "I have helped you at supper, and yet
one of my illusions ha