"I suppose," she said, slowly, "that it is very womanish in me,--that I almost wish it had been some one else." "Why?" he asked. "You _all_ have been moved by Mrs. Sylvestre," she replied, more slowly than before,--"_all_ of you." "How many of us are there?" he inquired. "Colonel Tredennis has been moved, too," she said. "Not long before you came in he paid me a brief visit. He does not come often now, and his visits are usually for Janey, and not for me. I displeased him the night he went with me to the reception of the Secretary of State, and he has not been able to resign himself to seeing me often; but this evening he came in, and we talked of Mrs. Sylvestre. He had been calling upon her, and her perfections were fresh in his memory. He finds her beautiful and generous and sincere; she is not frivolous or capricious. I think that was what I gathered from the few remarks he made. I asked him questions; you see, I wanted to know. And she has this advantage,--she has all the virtues which the rest of us have not." "You are very hard on Tredennis sometimes," he said, answering in this vague way the look on her face which he knew needed answer. "Sometimes," she said; "sometimes he is hard on me." "He has not been easy on _me_ to-day," he returned. "Poor Larry!" she said again. "Poor Larry!" He smiled a little. "You see what chance I should be likely to have against such a rival," he said. "I wonder if it ought to be a consolation to me to reflect that my position is such that it cannot be affected by rivals. If I had the field to myself I should stand exactly where I do at this moment. It saves me from the risk of suffering, don't you see? I know my place too well to allow myself to reach that point. I am uncomfortable only because circumstances have placed it before me in a strong light, and I don't like to look at it." "What is your place?" she asked. "It is in the Treasury," he replied. "The salary is not large. I am slightly in debt--to my tailor and hosier, who are, however, patient, because they think I am to be relied on through this administration." "I wish I knew what to say to you!" she exclaimed. "I wish I knew!" "I wish you did," he answered. "You have said all you could. I wish I believed what you say. It would be more dignified than to be simply out of humor with one's self, and resentful." "Larry," she said, gently, "I believe you are something more." "No! no! Nothing more!" he exclaimed. "Nothing more, for Heaven's sake!" And he made a quick gesture, as if he was intolerant of the thought, and would like to move it away. So they said no more on this subject, and began soon after to talk about Richard. "What did you mean," Arbuthnot asked, "by saying that Richard showed signs of his approaching doom? Isn't he in good spirits?" "It seems incredible," she answered, "that Richard should not be in good spirits; but it has actually seemed to me lately that he was not. The Westoria lands appear to have worried him."