“But they are not the wealthiest at the start,” said Nat.  “Is it possible that you are allowing Eloise to ride unchaperoned with a young physician?”

Mrs. Evringham did not remark the threatening curves at the corners of the speaker’s lips.

“Oh, this one is different,” she returned seriously; “very fine connections, and substantial in every way.”

Her companion threw back his head and laughed frankly.

“We have to smile at each other once in a while, don’t we, Mrs. Evringham?” he said, in the light, caressing manner which had for a few years been one of her chief worries; “but all the same, you’re fond of me just as long as I don’t forget my place, eh?  You’re glad to see me?”

“You know I am.”  Mrs. Evringham pressed her hand against the laces over her heart.  “Such a bittersweet feeling comes over me at the very tones of your voice.  Oh, the happy past, Nat!  Gone forever!” She touched a dainty handkerchief to her eyes.  “I suppose your mother is still in her apartment?”

“She has taken a place at View Point for the summer, and has set her heart on a long visit from you.”

“How very kind of her,” responded Mrs. Evringham with genuine gratitude.  “I don’t know what father means to do in the hot weather or whether he—­or whether I should wish to go with him.  Your mother and I always enjoyed each other, when she was sufficiently free from suffering.”

“That time is always now,” returned Nat, a fullness of gratitude in his voice.

His companion looked at him curiously.  “I can’t realize it.”

“Come and see,” was his reply.

“I will, I certainly will.  I shall anticipate it with great pleasure.”

A very convenient place to prepare a part of Eloise’s trousseau, Mrs. Evringham was considering, and the girl safely engaged, Nat’s presence would have no terrors.  “You think you are really getting into a good business arrangement now?” she asked aloud.

“Very.  I wake up in the morning wondering at my own good fortune.”

“I am so glad, my dear boy,” responded the other sympathetically.  “Perhaps, after all, you will be able to wait for a little more chin than Miss Caton has.  Of course she’s a very nice girl and all that.”

Bonnell smiled at the carpet.

They talked on for half an hour of mutual friends over cups of tea, and then he rose to go.

“Eloise will be sorry!” said Mrs. Evringham effusively.  “It’s such a long way out here and so difficult for you to get the time.  It isn’t as if you could come easily.”

“Oh, I have several days here.  I’m staying at the Reeves’s.  Do you know them?”

“No,” returned the lady, trying to conceal that this was a blow.

“It is Mr. Reeves with whom I am going into business, and we are doing some preliminary work.  I shall see Eloise soon.  Remember me to her.”

“Yes, certainly,” replied Mrs. Evringham.  She kept a stiff upper lip until she was alone, and then a troubled line grew in her forehead.