Evan must do duty by Rose.  And now occurred a phenomenon in him.  Instead of shunning her, as he had rejoiced in doing after the Jocasta scene, ere she had wounded him, he had a curious desire to compare her with the phantom that had dispossessed her in his fancy.  Unconsciously when he saw her, he transferred the shame that devoured him, from him to her, and gazed coldly at the face that could twist to that despicable contortion.

He was in love, and subtle love will not be shamed and smothered.  Love sits, we must remember, mostly in two hearts at the same time, and the one that is first stirred by any of the passions to wakefulness, may know more of the other than its owner.  Why had Rose covered her head and shuddered?  Would the girl feel that for a friend?  If his pride suffered, love was not so downcast; but to avenge him for the cold she had cast on him, it could be critical, and Evan made his bearing to her a blank.

This somehow favoured him with Rose.  Sheep’s eyes are a dainty dish for little maids, and we know how largely they indulge in it; but when they are just a bit doubtful of the quality of the sheep, let the good animal shut his lids forthwith, for a time.  Had she not been a little unkind to him in the morning?  She had since tried to help him, and that had appeased her conscience, for in truth he was a good young man.  Those very words she mentally pronounced, while he was thinking, ’Would she feel it for a friend?’ We dare but guess at the puzzle young women present now and then, but I should say that Evan was nearer the mark, and that the ‘good young man’ was a sop she threw to that within her which wanted quieting, and was thereby passably quieted.  Perhaps the good young man is offended?  Let us assure him of our disinterested graciousness.

‘Is your friend coming?’ she asked, and to his reply said, ‘I’m glad’; and pitched upon a new song-one that, by hazard, did not demand his attentions, and he surveyed the company to find a vacant seat with a neighbour.  Juley Bonner was curled up on the sofa, looking like a damsel who has lost the third volume of an exciting novel, and is divining the climax.  He chose to avoid Miss Bonner.  Drummond was leaving the side of the Giorgione lady.  Evan passed leisurely, and Drummond said ‘You know Mrs. Evremonde?  Let me introduce you.’

He was soon in conversation with the glorious-haired dame.

‘Excellently done, my brother!’ thinks the Countess de Saldar.

Rose sees the matter coolly.  What is it to her?  But she had finished with song.  Jenny takes her place at the piano; and, as Rose does not care for instrumental music, she naturally talks and laughs with Drummond, and Jenny does not altogether like it, even though she is not playing to the ear of William Harvey, for whom billiards have such attractions; but, at the close of the performance, Rose is quiet enough, and the Countess observes her sitting, alone, pulling the petals of a flower in her lap, on which her eyes are fixed.  Is the doe wounded?  The damsel of the disinterested graciousness is assuredly restless.  She starts up and goes out upon the balcony to breathe the night-air, mayhap regard the moon, and no one follows her.