She was coaxed by degrees to empty a glass.  She had a gentle heart, and could not hold out long against a visible lively kindliness.  It pleased him that she should bow to him over fresh bubbles; and they went formally through the ceremony, and she smiled.  He joked and laughed and talked, and she eyed him a faint sweetness.  He perceived now that she required nothing more than the restoration of her personal pride, and setting bright eyes on her, hazarded a bold compliment.

Dahlia drooped like a yacht with idle sails struck by a sudden blast, that dips them in the salt; but she raised her face with the full bloom of a blush:  and all was plain sailing afterward.

“Has my darling seen her sister?” he asked softly.

Dahlia answered, “No,” in the same tone.

Both looked away.

“She won’t leave town without seeing you?”

“I hope—­I don’t know.  She—­she has called at our last lodgings twice.”

“Alone?”

“Yes; I think so.”

Dahlia kept her head down, replying; and his observation of her wavered uneasily.

“Why not write to her, then?”

“She will bring father.”

The sob thickened in her throat; but, alas for him who had at first, while she was on the sofa, affected to try all measures to revive her, that I must declare him to know well how certain was his mastery over her, when his manner was thoroughly kind.  He had not much fear of her relapsing at present.

“You can’t see your father?”

“No.”

“But, do.  It’s best.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Not—­” she hesitated, and clasped her hands in her lap.

“Yes, yes; I know,” said he; “but still!  You could surely see him.  You rouse suspicions that need not exist.  Try another glass, my dear.”

“No more.”

“Well; as I was saying, you force him to think—­and there is no necessity for it.  He maybe as hard on this point as you say; but now and then a little innocent deception maybe practised.  We only require to gain time.  You place me in a very hard position.  I have a father too.  He has his own idea of things.  He’s a proud man, as I’ve told you; tremendously ambitious, and he wants to push me, not only at the bar, but in the money market matrimonial.  All these notions I have to contend against.  Things can’t be done at once.  If I give him a shock—­well, we’ll drop any consideration of the consequences.  Write to your sister to tell her to bring your father.  If they make particular inquiries—­very unlikely I think—­but, if they do, put them at their ease.”

She sighed.

“Why was my poor darling so upset, when I came in?” said he.

There was a difficulty in her speaking.  He waited with much patient twiddling of bread crumbs; and at last she said: 

“My sister called twice at my—­our old lodgings.  The second time, she burst into tears.  The girl told me so.”