"I am sorry all this should have happened, Agnes. As I told you yesterday, I hoped to save you from this man's importunities. It cannot be helped now. But I think I made it clear to the gentleman that his attentions are as distasteful to me as they are to you. As he seems to have told you, he has been obliged to leave the country--I understand that he has done something or other which makes it safer for him to undertake a long journey. At any rate, we are well rid of him for some time to come, and I think you need have no fear of further molestation." "What did he mean by saying that he had had encouragement from you?" asked the young girl. "I am sure I do not know. That was of course a lie out of whole cloth. He came to me with letters of recommendation from good friends of mine, and I therefore occasionally invited him to the house; but that is all the encouragement he ever got from me. We live in the United States and at the close of the nineteenth century. The selection of a husband is no longer performed by a stern parent, but is left entirely to the young girl herself. That is certainly my way of looking at the matter. When you find the man of your choice, my only function will be to give my advice, if you seek it, and my best assistance in any event." The turn of the conversation thus suddenly brought to the surface the topic which occupied the young girl's mind, to the exclusion of all others; and which, for that very reason, had been kept severely in the background up to that point. "That reminds me," said Agnes consciously, as a charming flush suffused her beautiful face, "that I have not yet broached the principal object of this interview----" Murdock observed her closely and waited for her to proceed. But Agnes was once more laboring under a strange embarrassment and could not find words in which to frame the confidence she was so reluctant to offer. Perhaps the chemist divined something of the nature of what she was struggling to find expression for. At any rate, he noticed her embarrassment and endeavored to come to her assistance with a few encouraging words, spoken with unusual gentleness. Agnes, engrossed with her own thoughts, did not notice it; but there was in his manner as near an approach to tender wistfulness as his nature was capable of. At last the young girl seemed to gather courage, and she was about to speak, when there was a knock upon the door. "Plaze, sur; there do be two gintlemin in the hall." "Who are they, Mary?" "Shure, thin, sir, I dunno, barrin' wan uv 'em do be a polacemun." "Did they ask to see me?" "They did not, sur; shure they asked if Mr. Chapman was in." "Mr. Chatham?" "Yis, sur. And I told 'em he wuz here this afthernoon, and I wud see wuz he here now, fur I aint seen him go yit." "Well, Mary, you see he has gone, since he is no longer here," said Murdock quietly. "Take the gentlemen into the parlor, and tell them I shall be with them in a minute." "All right, sur."