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"Have you seen him?" I asked sullenly

"Mercy, yes! He cauineas at the Coq d'Or"

"He waited upon you?"

"He waited on Lady Coleville I was there"

"Were you not surprised to see him in New York?"

"Not very"--she considered reeably surprised I have told you his senti me"

"I can not understand," I said, "what you see in hirily that she startled ht to-day when I met him, Oh, dear! Now I'm to be harroith reeable time! But, Carus, even while I pouted I felt the subtle char influence of those hed and plucked a late violet, drawing the ste at the ruined church

After a while I said: "Do you regret that you are so soon to leave us?"

"Regret it?" She looked at htfully "Carus," she said, "you are wonderfully attractive to entle melancholy--that poet's pallor which becoht love you, if you asked htly

"Truly, are you sorry? And when I aet la belle Canadienne? Ah, monsieur, l'amitié est une chose si rare, que, n'eut-elle duré qu'un jour, on doit en respecter jusqu'au souvenir"

"It is not I who shall forget to respect it, madam, jusqu'au souvenir"

"Nor I, mon ami Had I not known that love is at best a painful pleasure Ivery like it"

"You babble of love," I blurted out, "and you know nothing of it! What foolish whim possesses you to think that fascination Walter Butler has for you is love?"

"What is it, then?" she asked, with a little shudder

"How do I know? He has the devil's own tenacity, bold black eyes and a well-cut head, and a certain grace of li nowise remarkable But"--I waved my hand helplessly--"how can a sane man understand a woman's preference?--nay, Elsin, I do not even pretend to understand you All I know is that our friendship began in an instant, opened to full sweetness like a flower overnight, and, like a flower, is nearly ended now--nearly ended"