large drooping hat.  Her whole expression, too, had changed.  She had no longer the look of a hunted and frightened child.  She carried herself with confidence and with colour in her cheeks, and though she held out her hand to him with some show of timidity, the smile upon her lips was delightful, if a little appealing.  “Mr. Vine,” she said, “please forgive my coming.  I have something so important to say to you and I heard that you were going back to the States.  You will spare me a few minutes, will you not?”

Vine was only human, and hers was an appeal it was not easy to refuse.  He placed a chair for her, and stood in a listening attitude.

“My dear young lady,” he said, “I will listen gladly to anything that you have to say.  But as I have nothing more left which it would be of any interest to you to steal, I scarcely understand to what I am indebted for this unexpected”—­he hesitated for a moment and concluded his sentence with a not ungracious bow—­“unexpected pleasure!” he said.

She smiled up at him delightfully.

“I am so glad, Mr. Vine,” she said, “that you are going to be generous and nice, because what I have to say to you is so difficult, and if you were angry with me it would be very hard to say.”

“I trust,” he answered, “that I can accept a defeat; and you had all the luck, you know.”

“I had,” she admitted.  “It was, after all, nothing to do with me.  I see you have cleared your cupboard out.  I can assure you that it was a terribly stuffy place with all those clothes of yours hanging there.”

He smiled.

“Well,” he said, “you were very patient and very persistent.  You have won and I lost.  I am not at all sure that it is not a good thing that I lost.  My friend Deane tells me so even now.  But let that go.  I am sure you would like to tell me what it is that you have come here for.”

“I have come,” she answered, “to talk to you about Stella.”

“Stella?” he repeated slowly.

Virginia nodded.

“Yes!” she said.  “You see, I have all the time the feeling that I have somehow or other done Stella an injury by taking her place with my uncle, and do you know, Mr. Vine, since he has been in London he seems quite altered.  He has been simply delightful, and I haven’t felt frightened by him once.  He keeps on giving me beautiful presents, and he does not seem in the least in a hurry to get back to America.”

Norris Vine smiled grimly.

“I do not blame him,” he said.

“Yesterday,” she continued, “I could not help it; I disobeyed his orders and I spoke to him about Stella, and do you know, he listened to me quite patiently.  Mr. Vine, I am going to say something to you very serious.  You must not ask me how I know, or exactly what I know; but I accidentally do know so much as this.  You and Stella are very fond of one another, and I should like to see you married.”

He raised his eyebrows slowly.