I will speak to her bravely myself, as a friend of her cousin." Madame Grandoni and Rowland exchanged glances of baffled conjecture, and Christina flung off her burnous, crumpled it together, and, with uplifted finger, tossing it into a corner, gave it in charge to her poodle.

He stationed himself upon it, on his haunches, with upright vigilance.

Christina crossed the room with the step and smile of a ministering angel, and introduced herself to Mary Garland.

She had once told Rowland that she would show him, some day, how gracious her manners could be; she was now redeeming her promise.

Rowland, watching her, saw Mary Garland rise slowly, in response to her greeting, and look at her with serious deep-gazing eyes.
The almost dramatic opposition of these two keenly interesting girls touched Rowland with a nameless apprehension, and after a moment he preferred to turn away.