THEY return. The early Winter night has fallen, and in the smaller drawing-room the curtains are already drawn, and though no lamps are lit, a sweet, chattering, gossiping fire sheds a radiance round that betrays all things to the view. As Dulce enters the room everyone says, "Well, Dulce," in the pleasantest way possible, and makes way for her, but Miss Blount goes into the shade and sits there in a singularly silent fashion. Sir Mark, noting her mood, feels within him a lazy desire to go to her and break the unusual taciturnity that surrounds her. "Why so mute, fair maid?" he asks, dropping into a chair near hers. "Am I mute?" she asks in her turn, thereby betraying the fact that she has been very far from them in her inmost thoughts. "Rather," says Sir Mark; "would you think me rude if I asked the subject of your waking dreams?" "No; I was merely thinking what an unsatisfactory place this world is." She says this slowly, turning her large eyes somewhat wistfully on his. If she likes any one on earth honestly it is Mark Gore. "What a morbid speech," returns he. "Do you want a footstool, or a cup of tea, or what? Evidently something has made the whole world gray to you. And I can't even agree with you, I think this present world an uncommonly good old place, all things considered. Rough on us now and then, but quite passible." "You are happy," she says. "And you?"--he lets his keen eyes seek hers--"of what can you complain? You seem one of fortune's favorites. Have you not got as your most devoted slave the man of your heart?" "I suppose so." There is a thorough lack of enthusiasm in her tone, that irritates him. He puts the end of his mustache into his mouth and chews it slowly, a certain sign that he is both grieved and annoyed. Then he changes his glass from his right eye to his left, after all of which he feels better for the moment. "And besides," he says, with a valiant determination to follow his cross-examination to its bitter end, "you have successfully got rid of the man you hate. I refer to Roger." "I suppose so." Just the same answer, in just the same tone. Sir Mark is plainly indignant. Perhaps he had hoped to see her betray some emotion on the mention of her cousin's name, but if so he is disappointed. "You grow apathetic," he says, somewhat sharply. "Soon you will care for nothing. A bad trick for any girl to learn." "I have learned that trick already. I care for very little now," says Dulce, in a perfectly even tone. Her hands, lying in her lap, are without motion. Her eyelids are without a tremor. "And yet she is _not_ heartless," says Sir Mark to himself, reflectively. "I suppose she is only acting for my special benefit, and though it is rather a good performance, it is of no earthly use, as I can see right through her." Nevertheless he is angry with her, and presently rising, he goes away from her to where Dicky Browne is holding high revelry amongst his friends.