She was his ‘friend,’ not because he could not tear himself away from her presence, but because she had now become to him a thing of so little consequence that it was not worth his while to avoid her. He had never said so to her, but she knew it, and it was more convenient to say to Eleanor Askam, ‘We are friends,’ than it would have been to explain to her the nature of the friendship. And thus it can be understood how Michael this night thought more of Eleanor Askam, and felt more interest in her—of a purely speculative kind—than in the woman he had known and loved for so many years. He had cut himself off entirely from the Askam clan, as it were—Gilbert was mixed up with them; Magdalen and Otho were friends, and Otho was a man whom he disliked inevitably, from his very nature. The vision of this bright and beautiful girl, suddenly appearing in a quarter to which he was accustomed to consider himself a perfect stranger, had struck him, and he felt interested in her, as we feel interested in amusing or curious things with which we do not expect or desire to have any intimacy. And while he was waiting for Roger to come in to dinner, and ostensibly reading, he found himself half-dreaming, for he was sleepy, and ever the vision before his mental eyes was Magdalen’s scented, warm parlour, with its ruddy glow of firelight cheering the dull afternoon, and the sudden appearance upon the scene of that bright and beautiful girl, with her open gaze, and her abundant life and fire. At last Roger came in, apologising for being late. ‘I went to meet Ada, and it is a good half-hour’s walk from Balder Hall.’ ‘Oh, I’ve been at Balder Hall this afternoon, too. Who do you think I saw there?’ ‘Miss Askam—I’ve heard.’ ‘Otho Askam’s sister. That is the light in which I saw her, I must confess.’ Roger shrugged his shoulders. They were as broad—he was as big, as clumsy, as saturnine as ever. ‘Ada says she is very handsome.’ ‘Ay, she is! Handsome enough to make a sensation here, I can tell you.’ ‘Ah! In her brother’s style?’ ‘No, indeed. I should say they had no two points in common, unless physiognomy lies most atrociously.’ ‘Wish her joy, I’m sure, then,’ said Roger, drily. ‘Just what I was thinking. Are you going out again to-night?’ he added, for they had returned to the library, and he saw Roger collecting sundry songs and pieces of music. ‘Yes. The usual rendezvous,’ replied Roger. ‘How go the rehearsals?’ ‘First-rate; if she would only leave it to me, and not go up to Balder Hall after every lesson, to get a second opinion.’ Michael laughed a little sarcastically. ‘That must be flattering to your _amour propre_, both as teacher and betrothed,’ he said. ‘Very much so. Never mind! When we are wed, the Balder Hall alliance must come to an end.’