"He will one of these days. He'll blurt it out and then he'll begin to get over it. Don't stop him, and don't get excited, no matter what absurd things he says. He'll be better when he has emptied his heart. I was, you know, after I talked to you and told you that I'd been--jilted." "I'm afraid it's gone too deep for that with David," she said, sadly. "It couldn't go deeper than it did with me, and yet you--you taught me to forgive her. Yes, and to be glad, too; for if she hadn't thrown me over, I wouldn't have known you." "Now _stop!_" Mrs. Richie said, with soft impatience. "For a meek and mild looking person," said Robert Ferguson, twitching off his glasses, "you have the most infernally strong will. I hate obstinacy." "Mr. Ferguson, be sensible. Don't talk--that way. Listen: David must see Elizabeth while he is here. This situation has got to become commonplace. I meant to go home to-morrow morning, but if you will ask us all to luncheon--" "'Dinner'! We don't have your Philadelphia airs in Mercer." "Well, 'dinner,'" she said, smiling; "we'll stay over and take the evening train. "I won't ask Blair!" "I hate obstinacy," Mrs. Richie told him, drolly. "Well, I am not so very anxious to see Blair myself. But I do want Elizabeth and David to meet. You see, David means to practise in Mercer--" "What! Then you will come here to live? When will you come?" "Next spring, I hope. And it is like coming home again. The promise of the hospital was a factor in his decision, but, even without it, I think he will want to settle in Mercer"; she paused and sighed. Her old landlord did not notice the sigh. "I'll get the house in order for you right off!" he said, beaming. "I suppose you'll ask for all sorts of new-fangled things! A tenant is never satisfied." He was so happy that he barked and chuckled at the same time. "I hope it's wise for him to come," Mrs. Richie said, anxiously; "I confess I don't feel quite easy about it, because--Elizabeth will be here; and though, of course, nobody is going to think of how things might have been, still, it will be painful for them both just at first. That's why I want you to invite us to dinner,--the sooner they meet, the sooner things will be commonplace." "When a man has once been in love with a woman," Robert Ferguson said, putting on his glasses carefully, "he can hate her, but she can never be commonplace to him." And before she knew it she said, impulsively, "Please don't ever hate me." He laid a quick hand on hers that was resting in her lap. "I'll never hate you and you'll never be commonplace. Dear woman--can't you?" She shook her head; the tears stood suddenly in her leaf-brown eyes. "Helena!" he said, and there was a half-frightened violence in his voice; "_what_ is it? Tell me, for Heaven's sake; what is it? Do you hate me?" "No--no--no!" "If you dislike me, say so! I think I could bear it better to believe you disliked me."