The Path of a Star

nd, in Alicia Livingstone's drawing-room, "because I want particularly to talk

ries came and went. There was a mist in her brain as she talked to the Major-Generals and Deputy-Secretaries-it did not in the least obscure what she found to say-and in the midst of it the formless idea that he must wish to attach a special importa

" he said. "Can I convince you in that time

hardly think," she said, drawing the long breath with which we try to subdue a tempest within,

ly. I am living in it, moving in it, speaking in it," he added quickl

oughly?" There was that in her voice which cried out that she would rather not touch it at all; but

an't bear the thought of their fingers. T

raight at him. It nerved her to be brought into his equation, even i

know already,

Don't be alarmed-not from

oman! I have

ions. In this case," Alicia went on, with

thing to handle his delight-he

her. "It's so curiously unlike you," she faltered. "If she had been a duchess-

comparisons." Lindsay visaged the words with

ised her

ne to imagine?" she a

," he said

at's di

moment between them, t

, faith is not

usiasms, and running watercourses where his satisfactions were ever reflected. Suddenly she seemed to emerge to her own

for a fraction of an instant toward him, and then swiftly wit

l me; but I thought you might understand." He tapped the toe of his boot with

e to marry her?" he sa

twisted her sapphire ri

iend. It isn't such a monstrous thing to ask. Tell her any good you know of m

uggesting Celine and the curling tongs. She did not lose her elegance; the poise of her chin and shoulders was quite perfect, but

d-I might do harm." She had surmounted her emotion; she was able to look at the

unt with her

imagine her effect o

er-from me? You know I'm really not

d impatiently. "

ay

oldly beyond him out of the window. "A man's intellig

I don't agree," with which Lindsay met it. He rode down her logic wi

an impertinence. "After you have m

hers then,"

he prospect and rested on a brass-studded

was the soul of hospitality, made a profound and feeling remonstrance against Lindsay's going before tiffin, though Alicia, doing something to a bowl of nasturtiums, did not hear it. Not that her added protest would have detained Lindsay, who took