Vane saw a faintly warmer tone show through the clear pallor of her skin; but while his heart beat faster than usual he felt that she meant just what she said and nothing more. He must proceed with caution, which was, on the whole, foreign to him; and shortly afterwards he left her. When he had gone, Evelyn sat thinking about him. She had shrunk from the man in rebellious alarm when her parents would have bestowed her hand on him; but even then, and undoubtedly afterwards, she had felt that there was something in his nature which would have attracted her, had she been willing to allow it to do so. Now, though he had said nothing to rouse it, the feeling was stronger. Then she remembered with a rather curious smile her father's indignation when Vane had withdrawn from the field. He had done this because she had appealed to his generosity, and she had been grateful to him; but, unreasonable as she admitted the faint resentment she was conscious of to be, the recollection of the fact that he had yielded to her wishes was somehow bitter. In the meanwhile, Carroll had taken his place by Jessie's side. "I understand you steered your comrade satisfactorily through the meeting to-day," she began. "No," objected Carroll, "I can't claim any credit for doing so. In matters of the kind, Vane takes full control, and I'm willing to own that he drove us all, including your brother, on the course he chose." "Then it's in other matters you exercise a little judicious pressure on the helm?" The man looked at her in well-assumed admiration of her keenness. "I don't know how you guessed it, but I suppose it's a fact. It's, however, an open secret that Vane's now and then unguardedly ingenuous; indeed, there are respects in which he's a babe by comparison, we'll say, with either of us." "That's rather a dubious compliment," Jessie informed him. "What do you think of Miss Chisholm? I suppose you saw a good deal of her in England?" "I spent a month or two in her company; so did Vane. I fancy she's rather like him in several ways; and there are reasons for believing that he thinks a good deal of her." Having watched Vane carefully when Evelyn came in, Jessie was inclined to agree with him, and she glanced round the room. One or two people were moving about and the rest were talking in little groups; but there was nobody very near, and she fancied that she and her companion were safe from interruption. "What were some of the reasons?" she asked.