"You see," the old man was saying "you never can rely much on girls, Honor was taken with such a bad headache to-night that she preferred we would leave her behind, Madame d'Alberg insisted on my coming, since I was well enough for the first time in a long while." "Certainly, you should not have missed the trip," Vivian answered, "but I am sorry that Honor should be indisposed, I wanted her particularly to-night." So--thought Guy, it has come to this--"Honor"--how pat it came from his vicious lips. He made up his mind at this juncture to listen to every word, feeling sure to find some valuable clue before this night was over. The voice of assumed anxiety broke from Vivian's lips and interrupted Guy's thought. "I hope you are on the way to complete recovery at last Mr. Rayne," he said, "really I begin to feel anxious about you." Guy fancied the old man shaking his head in the usual contemplative way as the words came-- "Oh no, my dear boy, my system has completely broken up now, my decline is a matter of months only, now." Vivian was about to protest, when Mr. Rayne continued: "And I don't mind much, time was when I felt life full of responsibilities that cheered me on, but now--my old age is almost a blank--" Guy understood this illusion and winced, the unsteady voice still continued: "Since Honor's welfare in the dim future, when I shall be dead and gone, promises to be safe, I have had no reluctance to die. I lived for her." At these words Guy strained every nerve in his body and listened devouringly. Vivian spoke next, "What surprises me," he said "is that Honor has not been snatched away long before this." "She's a strange girl," Mr. Rayne answered pensively, "she does not take fancies easily, she has treated open admirers with such provoking coldness since she has 'come out' that I wonder at her having a friend left." "That is what weakens my hope," said Vivian Standish, in a splendid mockery of despair. "I fear that she might meet my proposal with the same indifference, and thus make my life a miserable blank." The color rushed to Guy's face, and then faded as suddenly away. "Infernal villain!" he muttered, and it was only by an extraordinary effort he conquered the impulse to spring upon the person of this vile adventurer, and strangle him then and there. What providential influence had brought him back to Ottawa at such a crisis, he asked himself. "Well," he heard his uncle say distractedly, "I have not broached the subject to her yet. She is a strange disposition and cannot be treated like others of her age and sex. I think the better plan would be, for you to deserve her love first, and from what we have all seen of you, I reckon that will not be the hardest of tasks. This is September--if you wish, after three months longer, I will speak to her, and tell her my opinion of you."