pretty
you almost take away my breath--all travel-stained and weary, too,
from your journey! What will not Henry say? I should scarcely have
known you. Surely now you need not go back. You are the picture of
health."

"We shall see," said Madge, quietly. "It may be best if I find that
the East does not agree with me." She was fully determined to keep
open her line of retreat.

Mr. Muir, in his quiet way, enjoyed the transformation as greatly
as did his wife. He had foreseen changes for the better, but had not
hoped for anything like this, he declared.

"I just want to be near when Graydon first sees you!" exclaimed
voluble Mrs. Muir, at the dinner-table.

The remark was unexpected, and Madge, to her dismay, found the blood
rushing to her face. Quick as thought she put her handkerchief to
her mouth, and sought to escape notice under the ruse of a brief
strangulation. "This is not going to answer at all," she thought. "I
must acquire a better self-control." She at once began talking about
Graydon in the most simple and natural manner possible, asking many
questions. Mrs. Muir's intuition and powers of observation were not
very great, and she was without the faintest suspicion of what was
passing in Madge's mind. Keen-eyed, reticent Mr. Muir was not so
unheeding, however. When Graydon's name was mentioned he happened to
glance up from the dinner which usually absorbed his attention. In
dealing with men he had acquired the habit of keen observation. During
a business transaction his impassive face and quiet eyes gave no
evidence of his searching scrutiny. He not only heard and weighed
the words to which he listened, but ever sought to follow the mental
processes behind them; and often men had been perplexed by the fact
that the banker had apparently arrived at conclusions opposite to the
tenor of their statements. When, therefore, he saw the color flying
into Madge's face at the unexpected utterance of his brother's name,
his attention was arrested and an impression made to which his mind
would revert in the future. It might mean nothing; it might mean a
great deal. Business and home life were everything to Mr. Muir, and
Graydon's admiration of Miss Wildmere did not promise well for either.

The power that Mr. Muir had acquired mainly by practice Madge
possessed by nature. As we have seen, she was quite free from that
most unwomanly phase of stupidity which is often due to the heart
rather than the head. Some women