"Don't look so unconvinced," she remonstrated. "Even supposing I were so contemptibly silly, do you think I couldn't stop in time--do you think I would let any one--even you--find it out? But, after all, what is more to the purpose, and will satisfy you better than all my assurances, the chances are very small that I shall ever meet this dangerous person again. So forget all about him, Sydney, and I shall too. By-the-bye, how strange it will seem to have Gerald Thurston here again. I am glad for papa's sake." "And for our own sakes too," said Sydney, with some indignation. "I think you are strangely ungrateful, Eugenia. Have you forgotten how very, very kind he was to us--to you especially? I know you cried bitterly when he went away." "Did I? I was a child," said Eugenia, indifferently. But immediately her mood changed. "No, Sydney," she exclaimed, "it _is_ ungrateful of me to speak like that; I do remember and I shall always like Gerald. But Frank provokes me into seeming uninterested by the fuss he makes about Gerald, as if such a piece of perfection never existed before. And you're nearly as bad yourself. Now, don't look dignified. I cannot help being contradictory sometimes. Kiss me, Sydney;" for by this time Sydney had risen and was really leaving the room, but stopped to kiss her sister as she was told. "That's a good child, and thank you for your advice, or warning, whichever it was, though I really don't need it as much as you think. I promise to forget all about Captain Chancellor as fast as I can. There now, won't that please you?" The "forgetting all about him" was not to be done in a minute, she found, though she set to work at it vehemently enough; for the leaving anything alone, allowing a possible evil to die a natural death, as is not unfrequently the wisest policy, was a negative course quite opposed to Miss Laurence's principles. Constantly during the next few days she found herself speculating on the possibility of her meeting Captain Chancellor again, recalling his words, and looks, and tones; but these "follies" she did her best to discourage. Never had she been more active or energetic in her home duties, never more resolutely cheerful. Sydney watched her, wondered, and admired, but still could not feel quite as easy in her mind as before the talk in the old school-room. Eugenia, on the contrary, was eminently pleased with herself, and had thoroughly recovered her own respect. The task set before her she imagined to be all but achieved--the goal of perfect mastery of the impression she now believed to have been a very fleeting one, all but won. One day at dinner, within a week of the foggy evening, her father turned towards her with a startling announcement.