When she was not engaged in nursing, she was more often alone than she had been the year before. The Keystone people visited the temple rarely. Miss M'Gann seemed always a little constrained, when Alves met her, and Dresser was living on the North Side. One December morning, when Alves was alone, she noticed a carriage coming slowly down the unfinished avenue. It stopped a little distance from the temple, and a woman got out. After giving the coachman an order, she took the foot-path that Alves and Sommers had worn. Alves came out to the portico to meet the stranger, who hastened her leisurely pace on catching sight of a person in the temple. At the foot of the rickety steps the stranger stopped. "You are Miss Hitchcock," Alves said quickly. "Won't you come in?" "How did you know!" Miss Hitchcock exclaimed, and added without waiting for a reply: "Let's sit here on the steps--the sun is so warm and nice. I've been a long time in coming to see you," her voice rippled on cordially, while Alves watched her. "But we've been out of the city so much of the time,--California, North Carolina, and abroad." Alves nodded. The young woman's ease of manner and luxurious dress intimidated her. She sat down on the step above Miss Hitchcock, and she had the air of examining the other woman without committing herself. "But, how did you know me?" Miss Hitchcock exclaimed, with a little laugh of satisfaction. "Dr. Sommers has told me about you." "Did he! He didn't tell any one of his marriage." The bluntness of the speech was relieved by the confidential manner in which Miss Hitchcock leaned forward to the other woman. "It was sudden," Alves replied coolly. "I know! But _we_, my father and I, had a right to feel hurt. We knew him so well, and we should have liked to know you." "Thank you." "But we had no cards--you disappeared--hid yourselves--and you turn up in this unique place! It's only by chance that I've found you now." "We didn't send out cards. We are such simple people that we don't expect--" Miss Hitchcock blushed at the challenge, and interrupted to save the speech from its final ungraciousness. "Of course, but we are different. We have always been so interested in Dr. Sommers. He was such a promising man." Alves made no effort to reply. She resented Miss Hitchcock's efforts to reach her, and withdrew into her shell. This young woman with her attendant brougham belonged to the world that she liked to feel Sommers had renounced for her sake. She disliked the world for that reason.