Not pleasant, all of them, it would seem, for there was a moisture in his eyes when he at last looked up in response to his brother’s questioning.

‘Who did you say Gretchen was?’

Instantly the expression of the eye changed to one of weariness and caution, as Arthur replied: 

’I did not say who she was, but you will soon know.  I saw by the time-table that the train which passes here at eleven does not stop, but the three o’clock does, and you will please see that John goes with the carriage.  I may be occupied with the carpenters, Burchard and Belknap, who were coming to talk with me about the changes I purpose to make, and which I wish commenced immediately.  It is a rule of mine that when I am to do a thing, to do it at once.  So I shall employ at least twenty men, and before Christmas everything will be finished, and I will show you rooms worthy of a palace.  It is of Gretchen I am thinking, more than of myself.  Poor little Gretchen!’

Arthur’s voice was inexpressibly sad and pitiful as he said ’Poor Gretchen,’ while his eyes again grew soft and tender, with a far-away look in them, as if they were seeing things in the past rather than in the future.

There was not a particle of sentiment in Frank’s nature, and Gretchen was to him an object of dread rather than a romance.  So far as he could judge, his brother had no intention of routing him; but a woman in the field would be different, and he should at once lose his vantage-ground.

‘You seem to be very fond of Gretchen,’ he said, at last.

‘Fond!’ Arthur replied, ’I should say I am, though the poor child has not much cause to think so.  But I am going to atone, and this suite of rooms is for her.  I mean to make her a very queen, and dress her in satin and diamonds every day.  She has the diamonds.  I sent them to her when I wrote to her to join me in Liverpool.’

‘And she did join you, I suppose?’ Frank said, determined by adroit questioning to learn something of the mysterious Gretchen.

‘Yes, she joined me,’ was the reply.

‘Was she very seasick?’ Frank continued.

’Not a minute.  She sat by me all the time while I lay in my berth, but she would not let me hold her hand, and if I tried to touch even her hair, she always moved away to the other side of the state-room, where she sat looking at me reproachfully with those soft blue eyes of hers.’

‘And she was with you at the Brevoort in New York!’ Frank said.

‘Yes, with me at Brevoort.’

‘And in the train?’

‘Yes, and in the train.’

‘And you left her there?’

’No; she left herself.  She did not follow me out.  She went on by mistake, but is sure to come back this afternoon,’ Arthur replied, rather excitedly, just as a sharp ring at the bell announced the arrival of Burchard and Belknap, the leading carpenters of the town, with whom he was closeted for the next two hours, and both of whom he finally hired in order to expedite the work he had in hand.