"Mr.
Kendal was probably quite right," she said, "in thinking the part unsuited to me; anyhow, I asked him for his opinion, and I should be a poor creature to mind his giving it." And then she laughed and said that I must ask Edward to keep his eyes open for anything that would do better for her in the autumn.

And since then she has behaved as if she had forgotten all about it.

I never knew any one with less smallness about her.' 'No; she is a fine creature,' said Kendal, almost mechanically.

How little Mrs.Stuart knew--or rather, how entirely remote she was from _feeling_--what had happened! It seemed to him that the emotion of that scene was still thrilling through all his pulses, yet to what ordinary little proportions had it been reduced in Mrs.Stuart's mind! He alone had seen the veil lifted, had come close to the energetic reality of the girl's nature.

That Isabel Bretherton could feel so, could look so, was known only to him--the thought had pain in it, but the keenest pleasure also.
'Do you know,' said Mrs.Stuart presently, with a touch of reproach in her voice, 'that she asked for you on the last night ?' 'Did she ?' 'Yes.