"How different it all was from the days—so far off and faded they seemed now—when we had conversed like friends, with neither restraints or concealment between us!
"Now he was reserved—distant, and I could feel that my manner was absolutely cold and haughty. I had reached the door when he came hurriedly toward me, saying—
"'Miss Crawford!'
"I stopped.
"'What is it, Mr. Harrington?'
"I knew my voice sounded icy—he looked at me, and the odd, troubled look came over his face again.
"'I only wished to ask if you were going to my mother,' he said in a hesitating, embarrassed way, very unusual with him.
"It was not true; he had meant to speak of something entirely different. I have wondered since if my frigid manner and lack of sympathy prevented him. Yet what could he have said—there was no possibility of his bringing even the slightest allusion to his trouble before me.
"'Certainly I am,' I said.
"'I have to go out,' he continued; 'I will be back by the time you wish to drive.'