r and better if she only
would marry--"

"I beg your pardon for interrupting you, mama. I thought you were alone,"
came a voice from the doorway. "How do you do, Mrs. Ferguson?"

"Oh!" ejaculated both ladies, as they looked up, to find standing in the
doorway a handsome girl, with clear-cut patrician features, and an erect
carriage which gave her an air of marked distinction.

"I only stopped to ask about the errand you asked me to do when I went
out," explained the girl, quietly, as the two women hunted for something
to say.

"Oh. Yes. Thank you for remembering, darling," stammered Mrs. Durant,
finding her voice at last. "Won't you please order a bunch of something
sent to Miss Porter--and--and--I'll be very much obliged if you'll attend
to it, Constance, my dear."

The girl merely nodded her head as she disappeared, but neither woman
spoke till the front door was heard to close, when Mrs. Durant exclaimed,
"How long had she been standing there?"

"I don't know."

"I hope she didn't hear!"

"I don't think she could have, or she would have shown it more,"

"That doesn't mean anything. She never shows anything outwardly. And
really, though I wouldn't purposely have said it to her, I'm not sure that
I hope she didn't hear it--for--well, I do wish some one would give her
just such advice."

"My dear, it isn't a case for advice; it's a case for match-making,"
reiterated Mrs. Ferguson, as she once more held out her hand.

Meanwhile Miss Durant thoughtfully went down the steps to her carriage, so
abstracted from what she was doing that after the footman tucked the fur
robe about her feet, he stood waiting for his orders; and finally,
realising his mistress's unconsciousness, touched his hat and asked,--

"Where to, Miss Constance?"

With a slight start the girl came back from her meditations, and, after a
moment's hesitation, gave a direction. Then, as the man mounted to his
seat and the brougham started, the girl's face, which had hitherto been
pale, suddenly flushed, and she leaned back in the carriage, so that no
one should see her wipe her eyes with her handkerchief.

"I do wish," she murmured, with a slight break in her voice, "that at
least mama wouldn't talk about it to outsiders. I--I'd marry to-morrow,
just to escape it all--if--if--a loveless marriage wasn't even worse." The
girl shivered slightly, and laid her head against the cushioned side, as
if weary.

She was still so busy with her thoughts