 chair near to hers, and, when he had seated himself,
took one of her hands. Miriam glanced at him with surprise, but did not resist
him. His cheeks were flushed, perhaps from the cold wind, and there was much
more life in his eyes than the other morning.
    »You're a lonely girl, Miriam,« he let fall idly, after musing. »I'm glad I
happened to come in, to keep you company. What have you been thinking about?«
    »Italy,« she answered, with careless truth.
    »Italy, Italy! Who doesn't think of Italy? I wish I knew Italy as well as
you do. Isn't it odd that I should be saying that to you? I believe you are now
far my superior in all knowledge that is worth having. Did I mention that Ciss
wrote an account of you in the letter just after she had reached Rome?«
    Miriam made an involuntary movement as if to withdraw her hand, but overcame
herself before she had succeeded.
    »How did she come to know me so quickly?« was her question, murmured
absently.
    »From Mrs. Spence, it seemed. Come, tell me what you have been doing this
long time. You have seen Greece too. I must go to Greece - perhaps before the
end of this year. I'll make a knapsack ramble: Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor,
Constantinople.«
    Miriam kept silence, and her brother appeared to forget that he had said
anything that required an answer. Pressently he released her hand, after patting
it, and moved restlessly in his chair; then he looked at his watch, and compared
it curiously with the clock on the mantelpiece.
    »Ciss,« he began suddenly, and at once with a laugh corrected himself -
»Miriam, I mean.«
    »What?«
    »I forget what I was going to say,« he muttered, after delaying. »But that
reminds me; I've been anxious lest you should misunderstand what I said
yesterday. You didn't think I wished to make charges against Cecily?«
    »It's difficult to understand you,« was all she replied.
    »But you mustn't think that I misjudge her. Cecily has more than realized
all I imagined her to be. There are few women living who could be called her
equals. I say this in the gravest conviction; this is the simple result of my
knowledge of her. She has an exquisite nature, an admirable mind. I
