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"I don't -like odour in it Don't you notice it?"

"Not particularly," he replied

"I was o," she said; "years away, I ain, with two stiff yellow braids, trying to pretend that a big arm-chair wasto , cuddled up tight, and looking out at the first rain of the year falling in the backyard There was an odour like this about it all Mehed, fearing that hethe fa such trivial and personal incidents upon his notice He was probably too indifferent to co as she ended

Then, without reason, through and through her shot a shiver of loneliness--utter loneliness and isolation Without reason, because fro, except what he offered--the emotionless reticence of indifference, the composure of perfect formality What did she want, then--companions? She had them Friends? She could scarcely escape from them Intimates? She had only to choose one or a hundred attuned responsive to her every , shouldering, crushing their way to her feet? Lonely? With the wo already for precedence in her favour?--onificant of the days to come, of those future years dialitter

Lonely!

The rain was falling out of the hangingain, but she shook her head, walking her horse slowly onward The train of thought she folloas slower still, winding on and on, leading her into half light and shadow, and in and out through hidden trails she should have known by this tih sudden turns And now she was beconised the quiet, still by-ways of the maze she seemed doomed to wander in forever But, for that ht were alike to her, for, sooner or later, all ultimately led to hi phenoainst--when she had leisure

"About that Aan without prelude; "would youa question or two, Howard?"

"You could not understand it," he said, unpleasantly disturbed by her abruptness