The great change in Nina Randolph's appearance and manner induced no small amount of gossip in San Francisco. Women are quick to scent the sin that society loves best to discuss, and there were many that suspected the truth: her long retirement had prepared them for an interesting sequel. Nina guessed that she was dividing with the war the honours of attention in a small but law-making circle, but was quite indifferent. She rarely went down to the parlour when people called, but sat in her bedroom staring out at the bay; the Lester house was on the summit of Clay Street hill. Her father was deeply anxious, full of gloomy forebodings. He believed Thorpe to be dead, and shook with horror when he thought of what the consequences might be. "Wouldn't you like a change?" he asked her one day. "How would you like go to New York? Molly and Mrs. Lester could go with you." Nina shook her head, colouring faintly. "I see. You are afraid of missing Thorpe. I wish there were some way of finding out--" She turned to him with eager eyes. "Would you go, papa,--to New Orleans? I haven't dared to ask it. Go and see what is the matter." "My child, I could not get there. The ports are blockaded; if I attempted the folly of getting to New Orleans by land, I should probably be shot as a spy. It is for those reasons that he will have great difficulty in getting here, as he did not have the forethought to leave the South in time." To this Nina made no reply, and as she would not talk to him, he left her. That evening Miss Shropshire came into Nina's room, and spoke twice before she was answered. The room was dark. "Look here, Nina!" she said peremptorily. "You've got to brace up. People are talking. I know it!" "Are they? What does it matter? I have no more use for them. I may as well tell you I have come to the conclusion that Dudley Thorpe ceased to care for me, and that is the reason of his silence. He has gone back to England." "I don't believe it. You're growing morbid. Women frequently do after that sort of experience. I remember Beatrix sat in one position for nearly a month, staring at the floor: wouldn't even brush her teeth. You have too much brains for that sort of thing." "I believe it. I have made up my mind. He is in England. He wrote me once that if it were not that I had asked him not to leave the country, he would run over, he was so tired of America. He went, and stayed." "Well, then, go out in the world and flirt as you used to. Don't let any man bowl you over like this; and, for Heaven's sake, don't mope any more!" "I hate the thought of every man in San Francisco. When I knew them, I was an entirely different woman. I couldn't adapt myself to them if I wanted to--which I don't." "But there are always new ones--"