THE Doctor, eagerly, spoke to her first. “ Our friend has not come back? ”

“Mine has,” said Rose with grace. “Let me introduce Mr. Vidal.” Doctor Ramage beamed a greeting, and our young lady, with her discreet gaiety, went on to Dennis: “ He too thinks all the world of me.”

“Oh, she’s a wonder she knows what to do! But you’ll see that for yourself,” said the Doctor.

“I’m afraid you won’t approve of me,” Dennis replied with solicitude. “ You’ll think me rather in your patient’s way.”

Doctor Ramage laughed. “ No indeed I’m sure Miss Armiger will keep you out of it.” Then look ing at his watch, “ Bream’s not with her still? ” he inquired of Rose.

“He came away, but he returned to her.”

“He shouldn’t have done that.”

“It was by my advice, and I’m sure you’ll find it’s all right,” Rose returned. “ But you’ll send him back to us.”

“On the spot.” The Doctor picked his way out.

“He’s not at all easy,” Dennis pronounced when he had gone.

Rose demurred. “ How do you know that? ”

“By looking at him. I’m not such a fool,” her visitor added with some emphasis, “as you strike me as wishing to make of me.”

Rose candidly stared. “ As I strike you as wish ing? ” For a moment this young couple looked at each other hard, and they both changed colour. “My dear Dennis, what do you mean? ”

He evidently felt that he had been almost violently abrupt; but it would have been equally evident to a spectator that he was a man of cool courage. “I mean, Rose, that I don’t quite know what’s the matter with you. It’s as if, unexpectedly, on my eager arrival, I find something or other between us.”

She appeared immensely relieved. “ Why, my dear child, of course you do! Poor Julia’s between us much between us.” She faltered again; then she broke out with emotion: “ I may as well confess it frankly I’m miserably anxious. Good heavens,” she added with impatience, “ don’t you see it for yourself? ”

“I certainly see that you’re agitated and absent as you warned me so promptly you would be. But remember you’ve quite denied to me the gravity of Mrs. Bream’s condition.”

Rose’s impatience overflowed into a gesture. “I’ve been doing that to deceive my own self! ”

“I understand,” said Dennis kindly. “Still,” he went on, considering, “it’s either one thing or the other. The poor lady’s either dying, you know, or she ain’t! ”

His friend looked at him with a reproach too fine to be uttered. “ My dear Dennis you’re rough! ”

He showed a face as conscientious as it was blank. “ I’m crude possibly coarse? Perhaps I am without intention.”

“Think what these people are to me,” said Rose.

He was silent a little. “ Is it anything so very extraordinary? Oh, I know,” he went on, as if he feared she might again accuse him of a want of feeling; “I appreciate them perfectly I do them full justice. Enjoying their hospitality here, I’m conscious of all their merits.” The letter she had put down was still on the table, and he took it up and fingered it a moment. “ All I mean is that I don’t want you quite to sink the fact that I’m something to you too.”

She met this appeal with instant indulgence. “Be a little patient with me,” she gently said. Before he could make a rejoinder she pursued: “You yourself are impressed with the Doctor’s being anxious. I’ve been trying not to think so, but I daresay you’re right. There I’ve another worry.”

“The greater your worry, then, the more press ing our business.” Dennis spoke with cordial decision, while Rose, moving away from him, reached the door by which the Doctor had gone out. She stood there as if listening, and he continued: “ It’s me, you know, that you’ve now to ‘fall back ‘upon.”

She had already raised a hand with her clear “Hush! ” and she kept her eyes on her com panion while she tried to catch a sound. “The Doctor said he would send him out of the room. But he doesn’t.”

“All the better for your reading this.” Dennis held out the letter to her.

She quitted her place. “If he’s allowed to stay, there must be something wrong.”

“I’m very sorry for them; but don’t you call that a statement? ”

“Ah, your letter?” Her attention came back to it, and, taking it from him, she dropped again npon the sofa with it. “ Voyons, voyons this great affair!” she had the air of trying to talk herself nto calmness.

Dennis stood a moment before her. “ It puts us on a footing that really seems to me sound.”

She had turned over the leaf to take the measure of the document; there were three, large, close, neat pages. “ He’s a trifle long-winded, the ‘ governor ’! ”

“The longer the better,” Dennis laughed, “ when it’s all in that key! Read it, my dear, quietly and carefully; take it in ‘it’s really simple enough. ” He spoke soothingly and tenderly, turning off to give her time and not oppress her. He moved slowly about the hall, whistling very faintly and looking again at the pictures, and when he had left her she followed him a minute with her eyes. Then she transferred them to the door at which she had just listened; instead of reading she watched as if for a movement of it. If there had been any one at that moment to see her face, such an observer would have found it strangely, tragic ally convulsed: she had the appearance of holding in with extraordinary force some passionate sob or cry, some smothered impulse of anguish. This appearance vanished miraculously as Dennis turned at the end of the room, and what he saw, while the great showy clock ticked in the scented still ness, was only his friend’s study of what he had put before her. She studied it long, she studied it in silence a silence so unbroken by inquiry or com ment that, though he clearly wished not to seem to hurry her, he drew nearer again at last and stood as if waiting for some sign.

“Don’t you call that really meeting a fellow? ”

“I must read it again,” Rose replied without looking up. She turned afresh to the beginning, and he strolled away once more. She went through to the end; after which she said with tranquillity, folding the letter: “ Yes; it show r s what they think of you.” She put it down where she had put it before, getting up as he came back to her. tl It’s good not only for what he says, but for the way he says it.”

“It’s a jolly bit more than I expected.” Dennis picked the letter up and, restoring it to its en velope, slipped it almost lovingly into a breast pocket. “ It does show, I think, that they don’t want to lose me.”

“They’re not such fools!” Rose had in her turn moved off, but now she faced him, so intensely pale that he was visibly startled; all the more that it marked still more her white grimace. “ My dear boy, it’s a splendid future.”

“I’m glad it strikes you so! ” he laughed.

“It’s a great joy you’re all right. As I said a while ago, you’re a made man.”

“Then by the same token, of course, you’re a made woman! ”

“I’m very, very happy about you,” she brightly conceded. “The great thing is that there’s more to come.”

“Rather there’s more to come! ” said Dennis. He stood meeting her singular smile. “I’m only waiting for it.”

“I mean there’s a lot behind a general attitude. Read between the lines! ”

“Don’t you suppose I have, miss? I didn’t venture, myself, to say that to you,”

“Do I have so to be prompted and coached? ” asked Rose. “I don’t believe you even see all I mean. There are hints and tacit promises glimpses of what may happen if you’ll give them time.”

“Oh, I’ll give them time! ” Dennis declared. “But he’s really awfully cautious. You’re sharp to have made out so much.”

“Naturally I’m sharp.” Then, after an instant,- “Let me have the letter again,” the girl said, holding out her hand. Dennis promptly drew it forth, and she took it and went over it in silence once more. He turned away as he had done before, to give her a chance; he hummed slowly, to himself, about the room, and once more, at the end of some minutes, it appeared to strike him that she prolonged her perusal. But when he approached her again she was ready with her clear contentment. She folded the letter and handed it back to him. “Oh, you’ll do!” she proclaimed.

“You’re really quite satisfied? ”

She hesitated a moment. “For the present perfectly.” Her eyes were on the precious document as he fingered it, and something in his way of doing so made her break into incon gruous gaiety. He had opened it delicately and been caught again by a passage. “You handle it as if it were a thousand-pound note ‘”

He looked up at her quickly. “It’s much more than that. Capitalise his figure.”

“‘ Capitalise&r............