"Well, if you don't want to, you must not confine all your attention to your work." "I don't think there is much fear of that when you are near," he said, meekly. She laughed, and jumped up to kiss him with delight. "Now that was a splendid compliment, sir! You are improving rapidly--Mr. Adelstone himself couldn't have done it more neatly." Scarcely had the words left her lips than the door opened. "Mr. Adelstone," said Mrs. Penfold. A young man, tall and dark, and faultlessly dressed, stood in the doorway, his hat in one hand, a bouquet of flowers in the other. He was undeniably good-looking, and as he stood with a smile upon his face, looked at his best. A severe critic might have found fault with his eyes, and said that they were a little too small and a little too near together, might also have added that they were rather shifty, and that there was something approaching the sinister in the curves of the thin lips; but he was undeniably good-looking, and notwithstanding his well cut clothes and spotless boots with their gray gaiters, his white hands with the choice selection of rings, there was an indication of power about him; no one could have suspected him of being a fool, or lacking the power of observation; for instance, as he stood now, smiling and waiting for a welcome, his dark eyes took in every detail of the room without appearing to leave Stella's face. Mr. Etheridge looked up with the usual confused air with which he always received his rare visitors, but Stella held out her hand with a smile calm and self-possessed. There is a great deal of the woman even about a girl of nineteen. "Good-morning, Mr. Adelstone," she said. "You have come just in time for a cup of coffee." "I ought to apologize for intruding at such an unseasonable hour," he said, as he bent over her hand, "but your good housekeeper would not hear of my going without paying my respects. I am afraid I'm intruding." "Not at all, not at all," murmured the artist. "Here's a chair," and he rose and cleared a chair of its litter by the simple process of sweeping it on to the floor. Mr. Adelstone sat down. "I hope you are not tired after your mild dissipation last night?" he asked of Stella. She laughed. "Not at all. I was telling uncle how nice it was. It was my first party in England, you know." "Oh, you musn't call it a party," he said. "But I am very glad you enjoyed it." "What beautiful flowers," said Stella, glancing at the bouquet. He handed them to her. "Will you be so kind as to accept them?" he said. "I heard you admire them in the conservatory last night and I brought them for you from the rectory green-house." "For me?" exclaimed Stella, open-eyed. "Oh, I didn't know! I am so sorry you should have troubled. It was very kind. You must have robbed the poor plants terribly." "They would be quite consoled if they could know for whom their blossoms were intended," he said, with a low bow.