"You speak so warmly of this good friend, Alfred, that I am filled with joy--for your sake, my dear, that you have found such a friend. And yet I wonder, and cannot understand it." She almost whispers these last words. She has been carried away by Alfred's enthusiasm. Certainly, Felix's kindness and gentle bearing had made a great impression upon her, and her thoughts dwelt much upon him. But it was only yesterday that she first saw him. It is all so strange. Only yesterday! But it seems longer; it seems to her as if she has known him for a long, long time. "So now you can guess who it is, Lily, can't you?" "I think I can, dear, and I am very, very glad! Glad to find he is as good and noble as I believed him to be when I first saw him." "And it isn't so long ago that we first knew him!" "No, indeed, Alf dear--but yesterday!" "It might be yesterday. Why, it was only last Saturday night--just five days ago--that he saw you home from the Royal White Rose." The little hand that was caressing his neck slowly withdraws itself, and the flush of colour, that the excitement of the conversation had brought to the cheeks, dies rapidly away. Her hands now lie idly in her lap, her face is colourless, her eyes are drooping to the ground. "You are speaking of"--she manages to say. "Mr. Sheldrake, Puss! The noblest-hearted man in the world. You guessed at once--I saw it. Ah, Lily, that's a wise little head of yours!" He takes the wise little head between his hands, and kisses her lips. She kisses him thoughtfully, and gazes at him with a steady sad light in her eyes. "And he is such a good friend to you, Alf?" "Haven't I told you!--and all, perhaps, for Somebody's----" With a rapid motion, she places her fingers on his lips. "And is really noble-hearted! And has done all these kind things!" "All, and more, Lily. It is quite by accident I heard of these; for he is a queer character, and nothing displeases him so much as for people to speak to him about his kindness, or that they know it. He tries to show himself in quite a different light." Lily is silent and very thoughtful for a little time after this, but she soon recovers, and her manner becomes brighter because Alfred's is so. A great weight seems to have been lifted from his mind, and he is more considerate of her than is usual with him. But she, in the unselfishness of her affection, does not notice this; it is because he is more cheerful that she is happier.