emselves in green,
and all Nature gave one grand leap from winter into summer.

During all this time I was a constant and a favored guest at
O'Halloran's. I really don't think I ever went anywhere else. I cut off
all visits to others--that is, in the evening--and went there only.
O'Halloran always received me with the same cordiality, and the ladies
always met me with the same smile.

So many evenings in that comfortable parlor, so many chats with the
ladies, so many interviews with my host, could not fail to bring us
nearer together. Such was, indeed, the case with O'Halloran and Nora;
but with Marion it was different. There was, indeed, between us the
consciousness of a common secret, and she could not fail to see in my
manner something warmer than common--something more tender than
friendship, for instance--something, in fact, which, without being at
all spooney, was still expressive of very delicate regard. Yet there
came over her something which excited my fears, and filled me with
gloomy forebodings. She seemed to lose that cordiality which she
evinced on that first evening when I talked with her alone. She never
threw at me those deep glances which then had made my nerves tingle.
She seemed constrained and reserved. Only in speaking to me, there was
always in her voice an indefinable sweetness and gentleness, which made
her tones ring in my memory afterward like soft music. That showed me
that there was no coldness on her part; and so, too, when I did catch
at times the glance of her dark eyes, there was something in them so
timid, so soft, and so shy, that I could not think of her as wearying
of me. Yet this Marion, timid, tender, and shy; this Marion, holding
aloof under evident constraint, keeping apart, giving me no
opportunity; this Marion, who had now exchanged the intensity and the
solemnity of former days for something so very different--became a
puzzle to me.

Why had she changed? Was it her returning regard for Jack? Impossible.
His name had several times been mentioned without causing any emotion
in her. His approaching marriage with Mrs. Finnimore had once been
mentioned by Nora, who spoke of it as an interesting item of news.
Marion heard it with indifference. Or was she trying to withdraw from
any further intimacy with me? Was she suspicious of my intentions, and
desirous of giving me no hope? Was she trying to repel me at the
outset? It seemed so. And so a great fear gradually arose in my heart.