"You mustn't think too much about Paul," remarked Silas grimly, as they were about to part. "Thank you, sir," replied Eugenia, with a smile, "I'll think just enough and no more. But it was my mother that told me to ask about him if I saw you. She is very fond of him. You never come to see us now," the sly creature suggested. Silas stared at her before replying, and tried to find the gleam of mockery in her eyes, or in her smile. He failed, and his glances became shifty again. "Why, I reckon she'd kick me down the steps if I called without having some business with her. If you were to ask her who her worst enemy is, she'd tell you that I am the man." "Well, sir," replied Eugenia archly, "I have been knowing mother a good many years, but I've never seen her put any one out of the house yet. We were talking about you to-day, and she said you must be very lonely, now that Paul is away, and I know she sympathises with those who are lonely; I've heard her say so many a time." "Yes; that may be true," remarked Silas, "but she has special reasons for not sympathising with me. She knows me a great deal better than you do." "I'm afraid you misjudge us both," said Eugenia demurely. "If you knew us better, you'd like us better. I'm sure of that." "Humph!" grunted Silas. Then looking hard at the girl, he bluntly asked, "Is there anything between you and Paul?" "A good many miles, sir, just now," she answered, making one of those retorts that Paul thought so fine. "H-m-m; yes, you are right, a good many miles. Well, there can't be too many." "I think you are cruel, sir. Is Paul not to come home any more? Paul is a very good friend of mine, and I could wish him well wherever he might be; but how would you feel, sir, if he were never to return?" "Well, I must go," said Silas somewhat bluntly. When Beauty has a glib tongue, abler men than Silas find themselves without weapons to cope with it. "Shall I tell mother that you have given your promise to call soon?" Eugenia asked. "Now, I hope you are not making fun of me," cried Silas with some irritation. "How could that be, sir? Don't you think it would be extremely pert in a young girl to make fun of a gentleman old enough to be her father?" Silas winced at the comparison. "Well, I have seen some very pert ones," he insisted, and with that he bade her good-day with a very ill grace, and went on about his business, of which he had a good deal of one kind and another. "Mother," said Eugenia, after she had given an account of her encounter with Silas, "I believe the man has a good heart and is ashamed of it." "Why, I think the same may be said of most of the grand rascals that we read about in history; and the pity of it is that they would have all been good men if they had had the right kind of women to deal with them and direct their careers." "Do you really think so, mother?" the daughter inquired. "I'm sure of it," said the lady.