I could see no trace of time's unwelcome tooth in that smooth, ivory skin, as unwrinkled as a baby's face, while the rounded outlines and dimples would have graced a debutante. "You are a long time deciding," she said, playfully--the color coming fitfully under my scrutiny. "I will hazard twenty, but you may be older." "You think not any younger than that?" The curving lashes drooped and an entirely new expression swept over the charming face. "Now you look almost a child," I exclaimed with surprise. "You are a mystery to me, and I won't try to guess any more, for it is pure guess work." She laughed merrily. "You are greatly mistaken. I was twenty-six yesterday." I may have looked incredulous, and she was very keen to read my thoughts. "You do not believe me. Did you ever hear of a woman over twenty making herself out older than she was?" "My experience is but limited." I still believed that for some reason of her own she was deceiving me respecting her age. "When you hear my story your surprise will be that I do not look six and thirty, instead of a decade younger." Her next question was more startling than the first. "How do you like Mr. Winthrop?" I replied guardedly that I liked him very well. "Excuse me, but that is not a correct reply. No one that cares for him at all does so in that moderate fashion. They either love or hate him." "Have you ever known him intimately enough to be able to say how he is liked, or deserves to be?" She answered me by a low ripple of laughter. My perplexity was increasing, but I quite decided this Hermione Le Grange, as she called herself, had not a very sad heart to get comforted. "Do you find Mr. Winthrop very amiable, in fact would you call him a lady's man?" I paused to think carefully what answer I should give. "If he were a lady's man, probably before this he would have taken one for a wife." "You have only answered half of my question," she said so gently I could not resent it. "My guardian is very patient and indulgent with me. If he were more so I should find it hard to leave him some day." "You mean when the day of marriage comes?" "I have not thought anything of marriage yet. I mean, not seriously. Every young girl has her dreams, I suppose; but mine as yet are very vague and unreal. At twenty-one I am my own mistress. Then probably my life of ease will come to an end." "Ah, you have dreams of a career. From what my servants tell me I concluded you were not one of our regulation, conventional young ladies." My cheeks flushed; for this was a tender place for her to touch. "Is Mr. Winthrop pleased that you are so thoughtful of the poor, and so generous in your impulses?" "Really, Mrs. Le Grande, you would make an excellent lawyer. I do not think I have had so many personal questions since I came to America. School girls forget themselves sometimes, when they are of a very inquisitive disposition."