Giles was certainly loud in your praises, but I was hardly prepared for such a treat.

Why, Gladys dear, have you been crying?
What an impressionable child you are! Miss Garston has not contrived to draw tears from my eyes.' But, without making any reply, Miss Hamilton quietly left the room.

Were her eyes wet, I wonder?
Was that why Max stopped me?
Did he want to shield her from her cousin's sharp scrutiny?
If so, he failed.
'It is such a pity Gladys is so foolishly sensitive,' she went on, addressing Uncle Max: 'natures of this sort are quite unfit for the stern duties of life.

I am quite uneasy about her sometimes, am I not, Giles?
Her spirits are so uneven, and she has so little strength.

Parochial work nearly killed her, Mr.Cunliffe.You said yourself how ill she looked in the summer.' 'True; but I never thought the work hurt her,' replied Max, rather bluntly.