“I know it. That's what makes your goodness to her seem so wonderful to me. You treat her as if you cared as much as I do. And of course you don't. It isn't natural you should. She's my sister's child, and she's hardly any relation to you at all. You're awful good, Hosy. She's noticed it, too. I think she likes you now a lot better than she did; she as much as said so. She's beginning to understand you.” “Nonsense!” I said again. Understand me! I didn't understand myself. Nevertheless I was foolishly pleased to hear that she liked me. It was pleasant to be liked even by one who was destined to hate me later on. “I hope she won't feel too hard against us,” continued Hephzy. “I can't bear to think of her doin' that. She--she seems so near and dear to me now. We--I shall miss her dreadfully when it's all over.” I think she hoped that I might say that I should miss her, also. But I did not say anything of the kind. I was resolved not to permit myself to miss her. Hadn't I been scheming and planning to get rid of her ever since she thrust herself upon us? To be sorry when she, at last, was gotten rid of would be too idiotic. “Well,” observed Hephzy, in conclusion, “perhaps she and Doctor Bayliss will make a match after all. We ought to help it all we can, I suppose.” This conversation had various effects upon me. One was to make me unaccountably “blue” for the rest of that day. Another was that I regarded the visits of Worcester and Herbert Bayliss with a different eye. I speculated foolishly concerning those visits and watched both young gentlemen more closely. I did not have to watch the curate long. Suddenly he ceased calling at the rectory. Not altogether, of course, but he called only occasionally and his manner toward my “niece” was oddly formal and constrained. She was very kind to him, kinder than before, I thought, but there was a difference in their manner. Hephzy, of course, had an explanation ready. “She's given him his clearance papers,” was her way of expressing it. “She's told him that it's no use so far as he's concerned. Well, I never did think she cared for him. And that leaves the course clear for the doctor, doesn't it.”