Reginald at once began to get nervous, and his hands shook as he replied, “I know there is such a woman. What of her?” “Nothing much,” Tom answered. “Perhaps you may remember having heard me speak of my cousin Rena when we were in college. She lived with my mother when she was a little girl.” “Oh, yes. I remember perfectly, but I don’t recall her last name,” Reginald said. “Burdick,” Tom replied, with a sidelong look at his friend, who dropped his knife and fork suddenly upon his plate as he repeated, “Burdick! That is not a common name. I have heard it before.” “Perhaps,” Tom answered. “I have two cousins by that name, or, rather, second cousins. One I call Rena, and the other Irene; their fathers were brothers. I hear from Rena that they have engaged board for the summer with a Mrs. Parks, and will be here to-morrow on the four o’clock train.” Reginald resumed his knife and fork and said, with an attempt to laugh: “Oh, yes, I see, and fancy it was Miss Rena who had something to do with your coming to Oakfield. What did you say of the other young lady, Irene you called her? Is she your cousin, too?” “Second, I told you, same as Rena,” Tom answered, beginning to grow hot with a feeling that he was acting a lie by not telling the truth at once. “If Rex keeps on I shall tell him in spite of my promise,” he thought. But Reginald asked no more questions, nor did he in any way refer to the subject again that evening. He was, however, more than usually quiet, and looked the next morning as if he had not slept well. “He is taking it hard,” Tom thought, as he watched him trying to seem natural and talk of what they would do that day. “We might go into the billiard-room this morning and knock the balls round a little,” he said; “then in the afternoon I’ll take you for a drive over the hills, and—er—er—perhaps after dinner you will want to call upon your cousins—upon Miss Rena, and—er——” He didn’t say “Irene.” The name seemed to cleave to the roof of his mouth, and he couldn’t speak it. “Certainly,” Tom said. “I’ve not seen Rena since she came from Europe.” “Oh-h! was she there with her cousin?” Reginald asked, and Tom answered: “Yes, they were both there awhile,” and felt himself a worse deceiver than he had charged Rena with being. After a moment Reginald looked across the table to Colin, who had taken no part in the conversation. Knowing he was a little deaf, Reginald said to him: “The young ladies, the Misses Burdick, Tom’s cousins, come this afternoon to Mrs. Parks’.” “Yes, I know,” Mr. McPherson replied, and Reginald continued, hesitatingly: “How would it do to send them some flowers from the greenhouse? I noticed a good many roses in bloom yesterday.” “I think it a good idea,” Mr. McPherson said. “I’ll have the carriage go for them, too. The village ’bus is a miserable old rattletrap, and may not be there.”