Peter stood for a moment watching her. She went straight on, and the resolution of her gait bore sufficient witness to her purpose. He turned about then and went rather disconsolately the other way, which would bring him out at the path to Osmond's plantation. Rose, going up the garden path, came upon Electra herself, again dressed in white and among the flower-beds. Whether she hoped her lover would come, and was awaiting him, her face did not tell; but she met Rose with the same calm expectancy. There was ample time for her to walk away, to avoid the interview; but Electra was not the woman to do that. False things, paltering things, were as abhorrent to her in her own conduct as in that of another. So she stood there, her hands at her sides in what she would have called perfect poise, as Rose, very graceful yet flushed and apparently conscious of her task, came on. A pace or two away, she stopped and regarded the other woman with a charming and deprecatory grace. "Do guess who I am!" she said, in a delightful appeal. "Peter Grant told you." "Won't you come in?" returned Electra, with composure. "Mr. Grant did speak of you." Rose felt unreasonably chilled. However little she expected, this was less, in the just civility that was yet a repudiation. They went into the library, where the sun was bright on rows of books, and Electra indicated a seat. "Mr. Grant told me a very interesting thing about you," she volunteered, with the same air of establishing a desirable atmosphere. "Yes," said Rose rather eagerly. She leaned forward a little, her hands clasped on her parasol top. "Yes. I forbade him to say any more. I wanted to tell you myself." Electra's brows quivered perceptibly at the hint of familiar consultation with Peter, but she answered with a responsive grace,-- "He told me the interesting fact. It is very interesting indeed. We have all followed your father's career with such attention. There is nothing like it." "My father!" There was unconsidered wonder in her gaze. Electra smiled agreeingly. "He means just as much to us over here as he does to you in France--or England. Hasn't he been there speaking within the month?" "He is in England now," said Rose still wonderingly, still seeking to finish that phase and escape to her own requirements. "Mr. Grant said you speak, at times." "I am sorry he said that," Rose declared, recovering herself to an unshaded candor. "I shall never do it again." Electra was smiling very winningly. "Not over here?" she suggested. "Not before one or two clubs, all women, you know, all thoughtful, all earnest?" Rose answered coldly,-- "I am not in sympathy with the ideas my father talks about." "Not with the Brotherhood!"