parlor melodeon locked and tuneless. Poor little Mabel! He had not thought of her of late, and no word had he heard for three years now. What a strange thing his short friendship with Danforth had been. Why was it that life held so many complications ? Here she was, and yet so far away from him. He had hardly spoken to her. How hard it was to keep from saying the words that kept repeating themselves over and over to his inner consciousness. He had finished his cigar, or, at least, it had gone out, and suddenly arising, he pushed back the portiere and entered the next room. With that gesture of invitation that is really a welcome, Miss Hollingsworth made room for him to sit beside her on the sofa.
"Do you know," she said, "it was very fine of you to speak the way you did to-night. I enjoyed every word of it, and what is more," she added with a smile, "I think I understood it. Do you know, I have wanted to speak to you all the evening. There is something that I have wished to say, that I could not say before everybody, because I knew you would not like it——"
Just then the curtains were pulled apart and
