"You must have thought I talked a great deal of nonsense at luncheon." "Why!--I have always been delighted to find you cared for such things and took an interest in them.

How few women do!" he said quite simply, opening his eyes.

"Do you know these three pamphlets?
They were privately printed, and are very rare." He took out a book and showed it to her as one does to a comrade and equal--as he might have done to Edward Hallin.

But something was jarred in her--conscience or self-esteem--and she could not recover her sense of heroineship.

She answered absently, and when he returned the book to the shelf she said that it was time for her to go, and would he kindly ask for her maid, who was to walk with her?
"I will ring for her directly," he said.