She looked at him and smiled. "Your talk is too deep and clever for a poor girl like me to understand, sir." He smiled back. "They've all gone, Jane-Ellen," he said. The news did not seem to disturb the cook in the least. Reed would have been shocked by the calmness with which she received it. [Illustration: "And there was no truth in it?"] "And now you're all alone, sir," she replied. "Absolutely alone." She was still pattering about the kitchen, putting the last things to rights, but--or so it seemed to Crane--a little busier than her occupation warranted. "They left early, sir, didn't they? But then it did not seem to me that they were really enjoying themselves, not even Mr. Lefferts, though he is such an amusing gentleman. Every one seemed sad, sir, except you." "I was sad, too, Jane-Ellen." "Indeed, sir?" "Something was said at dinner that distressed me deeply." "By whom, sir?" "By you." She did not stop her work nor seem very much surprised, but of course she asked what her unfortunate speech had been. "I was sorry to hear you say you believed in Miss Revelly's triple engagement." At this she did stop short, and immediately in his vicinity. "But I did not know you knew Miss Revelly." "Yet I do." "And when I was describing her--" "It was as if I saw her before me." "I am sorry I said anything about a friend of yours, sir. I had supposed she was quite a stranger to you." "Sometimes it seems to me, too, as if she were a stranger," Crane answered. "Each time I see her, Jane-Ellen, she seems to me so lovely and wonderful and miraculous that it is as if I saw her for the first time. Sometimes when I am away from her it seems to me quite ridiculous to believe that such a creature exists in this rather tiresome old world, and I feel like rushing back from wherever I am to assure myself that she isn't just a creation of my own passionate desire. In this sense, I think she will always be a stranger, always be a surprise to me even if I should have the great felicity of spending the rest of my days with her. Does it bore you, Jane-Ellen, to hear me talking this way about my own feelings?" Jane-Ellen did not answer; indeed something seemed to suggest that she could not speak, but she shook her head and Burton went on. "So you see why it distressed me to hear from so good an authority as yourself that she had already engaged herself three times. It is not that I am of a jealous nature, Jane-Ellen, but when I ask her to be my wife, if she should say yes, I should want to feel sure that that meant--" "Oh, Mr. Crane!" said Jane-Ellen, "I said that to make Mr. Reed angry." "And there was no truth in it?" There was a pause. Jane-Ellen looked down and wriggled her shoulders a little.