looked cross and vexed at the question then past her at the and went forward and was never more fascinating than in the ten minutes walk that left the others free to follow as they chose behind them but when mr had put the into her pony carriage and she had driven away happy as any s e love struck girl of who comes trembling from her first love it seemed that she had taken his good spirits with her and after a word or two to left the young people abruptly after that herself was in haste to go and when she found that they would all meet at the san e ball that evening said that she and would make their plans there for seeing something of each other but when she reached street she went straight to the library where she found mr sitting grim and silent at his table with that vexed look which always strikes so sad and on young eyes she said timidly as she stole up behind him and ventured to draw his head to her shoulder has anyone vexed you to day � have you been disappointed the gentle touch the loving voice moved him almost as as his wife s had done when one of his dark fits overcame him and surely this child was his not s yet nor any other man s but he did not say what his disappointment had been as he kissed her nor for weeks did she again hear the name of major from her father s lips chapter iv is the y in its soft blossom and sweet is the its mantle green yet fairer and sweets and dear to this is young lovely j the flower of was not of the stuff that easily makes she had lived too entirely among men to have much in common with the average frivolous miss and the specimens of she had seen in town did not commend themselves to her but in she found a delightful surprise for here was a nature at once profound and sweet as in mood she was alternately grave and gay wilful tender she resembled an april day that with all its httle showers never suffers you to lose sight of heaven s blue beyond and hke a she moved along the path that was yet set about with many a thorn of trouble father and mother were dead sisters and brothers she had none and her home was made with a distant relation whose bread she ate and whose charity clothed her the bread was good of its kind the clothes were carefully chosen to set her off to advantage in that race which must be run by all well bom maids � the race for a husband on regarded he as one of the e a in the field for her body matched the lovely spirit within and when seen in public with i i was hard to the palm of beauty to either fire courage soul showed in s eyes of that rare that matches so with hair the exact colour of a chestnut when fresh stripped of its the pure of her skin the red of her mouth and the grace of her every movement mental and bodily strength so that when she was present she seemed to other women s looks by the vitality of her own and in other faces men sought in vain for the expression they found in hers in conversation she was not so remarkable as in her appearance and probably no one who met her out would have added the of brains to her already overflowing when very early in the season she discovered that to attempt seriously to converse with either her partners or the men who sat next her at dinner produced only amazement and discomfort in these gentlemen and that the women could be eloquent only on the theme of their own and other folks clothes she banished serious thought from her and but for common sense would have rushed into the airs of a female fool rather than show any signs of wisdom so she the flame in her eyes and learned small talk with more labour than mr s hardest lesson had ever cost her succeeding so well that more than one fashionable found himself exquisitely happy in her company being under the impression that her mental was inferior to his own would sometimes stare but would laugh for had been as complete a revelation to as she had been to yet however intimate e s they became their talk was of books and things and people but of lovers and hearts never a word meanwhile mr had not obtained the interview that he for though he had called so persistently at mrs s house as to feel almost like a beggar who haunts a door step the answer was always the same major was out by way of he was sometimes out of town and his return indefinite or he had just come in and just gone out again though the miracle of it was that no one ever met him abroad while he had not showed at his club for months mr at first attributed this of him to the man s well known aversion to any sort of society and also the dislike he was supposed to entertain to any friends of the late lord but when even his letters were disregarded mr began to suspect that there was some secret here and became the more resolute in his advance as the other retreated could it be possible that in dying frank had dropped some words that had picked up that this actually held the clue that mr believed to have been lost with his friend yet he could have sworn that was frank himself whose eyes had met his and at night and odd times strange thoughts would come into mr s 