She surveyed him unsmilingly.

“But you did not mean that,” she said.  “You were thinking of something—­quite different.”

He frowned thoughtfully.  Decidedly, this matter should be settled between them at once and for ever.  A clergyman, he reflected, must always be on friendly—­even confidential terms with a wide variety of women.  His brief experience had already taught him this much.  And a jealous or unduly suspicious wife might prove a serious handicap to future success.

“Won’t you sit down,” he urged.  “I—­You must allow me to explain.  We—­er—­must talk this over.”

She obeyed him mechanically.  All at once she was excessively frightened at what she had attempted.  She knew nothing of the ways of men; but she felt suddenly sure that he would resent her interference as an unwarrantable impertinence.

“I thought—­if you were going there today—­you might take it—­to her,” she hesitated.  “Or, I could send it.  It is a small matter, of course.”

“I think,” he said gravely, “that it is a very serious matter.”

She interpreted uncertainly the intent gaze of his beautiful, somber eyes.

“I came here,” she faltered, “to—­to find a home.  I had no wish—­”

“I understand,” he said, his voice deep and sympathetic; “people have been talking to you—­about me.  Am I right?”

She was silent, a pink flush slowly staining her cheeks.

“You have not yet learned upon what slight premises country women, of the type we find in Brookville, arrive at the most unwarrantable conclusions,” he went on carefully.  “I did not myself sufficiently realize this, at first.  I may have been unwise.”

“No, you were not!” she contradicted him unexpectedly.

His lifted eyebrows expressed surprise.

“I wish you would explain to me—­” he began.

Then stopped short.  How indeed could she explain, when as yet he had not made clear to her his own purpose, which had grown steadily with the passing weeks?

“You will let me speak, first,” he concluded inadequately.

He hastily reviewed the various phrases which arose to his lips and rejected them one by one.  There was some peculiar quality of coldness, of reserve—­he could not altogether make it clear to himself:  it might well be the knowledge of her power, her wealth, which lent that almost austere expression to her face.  It was evident that her wonted composure had been seriously disturbed by the unlucky circumstance of the photograph.  He had permitted the time and occasion which had prompted him to write those three fatefully familiar words on the back of the picture altogether to escape him.  If he chose to forget, why should Fanny Dodge, or any one else, persist in remembering?

And above all, why should the girl have chosen to drop this absurd memento of the most harmless of flirtations at the feet of Lydia?  There could be but one reasonable explanation....  Confound women, anyway!