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"A really good talk," she went on, s hat seemed to Archer an unnatural vividness "She was so dear--just like the old Ellen I'm afraid I haven't been fair to her lately I've soainst the mantelpiece, out of the radius of the laht--?" he echoed as she paused

"Well, perhaps I haven't judged her fairly She's so different--at least on the surface She takes up such odd people--she seems to like to make herself conspicuous I suppose it's the life she's led in that fast European society; no doubt we seee her unfairly"

She paused again, a little breathless with the unwonted length of her speech, and sat with her lips slightly parted and a deep blush on her cheeks

Archer, as he looked at her, was relohich had suffused her face in the Mission Garden at St Augustine He beca out toward soe of her vision

"She hates Ellen," he thought, "and she's trying to overcoet htthe silence between the himself on her mercy

"You understand, don't you," she went on, "why the family have sometimes been annoyed? We all did e could for her at first; but she never see to see Mrs Beaufort, of going there in Granny's carriage! I'm afraid she's quite alienated the van der Luydens "

"Ah," said Archer with an iain

"It's ti froered near the hearth As he walked past her she h to detain him: their eyesblue as when he had left her to drive to Jersey City

She flung her arms about his neck and pressed her cheek to his

"You haven't kissed me today," she said in a whisper; and he felt her tremble in his arms