I have reasons for believing that Mrs.Margery does." Alton smiled somewhat grimly.

"I'm just about as fond of good things as most other men," he said.

"The difficulty was that I seldom had the chance of getting them." Miss Deringham busied herself with a spirit lamp, and Alton watched her with a little glint in his eyes.

Possibly the girl knew that her movements were graceful as she bent over the lamp, and that the light from the one above her struck a fine sparkle from her hair.

She may also have been aware that the picture had its attractions for a man who had lived a grim life of toil and self-denial, as this one had done.
"It has occurred to me that this coffee is not the same that we had when we first came to Somasco," she said.
Alton appeared a trifle embarrassed.