"Really? I was not told. Perhaps it was forgotten. It was very good of you to take so much trouble. Every one has been singularly kind and just, when I was fancying myself so cruelly alone, too."

"Never alone so long as you will consider me your friend."

"That is two I have now."

"Two? Who is the other?"

"Jessica."

"Oh!"

A shadow of disappointment crossed his brow, a disappointment which he made no attempt to conceal.

She laughed nervously.

"Jessica tells me that I have been such a fool," she said, in a tone that was quite new to her.

"Indeed? How?"