“You mean as a student?”

“Well, yes, I suppose so; at least she appears to possess the faculty of absorbing every bit of information, like a sponge.  Sometimes she actually startles me with her odd questions; they are so unexpected and abstruse, falling from the lips of so young a girl.  Then her ideas are so crude and uncommon, and she is so frankly outspoken, that I become actually nervous when I am with her.  I really believe Mr. Wynkoop seeks to avoid meeting her, she has shocked him so frequently in religious matters.”

“Does she make light of his faith?”

“Oh, no, not that exactly, at least it is not her intention.  But she wants to know everything—­why we believe this and why we believe that, doctrines which no one else ever dreams of questioning, and he cannot seem to make them clear to her mind.  Some of her questions are so irreverent as to be positively shocking to a spiritually minded person.”

They lapsed into silence, swinging easily to the guidance of the music.  His face was grave and thoughtful.  This picture just drawn of the perverse Naida had not greatly lowered her in his estimation, although he felt instinctively that Miss Spencer was not altogether pleased with his evident interest in another.  It was hardly in her nature patiently to brook a rival, but she dissembled with all the art of a clever woman, smiling happily up into his face as their eyes again met.

“It is very interesting to know that you two met in so unconventional a way,” she ventured, softly, “and so sly of her not even to mention it to me.  We are room-mates, you know, and consequently quite intimate, although she possesses many peculiar characteristics which I cannot in the least approve.  But after all, Naida is really a good-hearted girl enough, and she will probably outgrow her present irregular ways, for, indeed, she is scarcely more than a child.  I shall certainly do my best to guide her aright.  Would you mind giving me some details of your meeting?”

For a moment he hesitated, feeling that if the girl had not seen fit to confide her adventure to this particular friend, it was hardly his place to do so.  Then, remembering that he had already said enough to arouse curiosity, which might easily be developed into suspicion, he determined his course.  In a few words the brief story was frankly told, and apparently proved quite amusing to Miss Spencer.

“Oh, that was Naida, beyond a doubt,” she exclaimed, with a laugh of satisfaction.  “It is all so characteristic of her.  I only wonder how she chanced to guess your name; but really the girl appears to possess some peculiar gift in thus discerning facts hidden from others.  Her instincts seem so finely developed that at times she reminds me of a wild animal.”

This caustic inference did not please him, but he said nothing, and the music coming to a pause, they slowly traversed the room.

“I presume, then, she is not present?” he said, quietly.