 don't say such things here.«
    »If you mean that he had been drinking a little, you can say that.«
    »He doesn't drink any more. I have cured him. And in return - he's in love
with me.«
    It was Acton's turn to stare. He instantly thought of his sister; but he
said nothing about her. He began to laugh. »I don't wonder at his passion! But I
wonder at his forsaking your society for that of your brother's paint-brushes.«
    Eugenia was silent a little. »He had not been in the studio. I invented that
at the moment.«
    »Invented it? For what purpose?«
    »He has an idea of being romantic. He has adopted the habit of coming to see
me at midnight - passing only through the orchard and through Felix's
painting-room, which has a door opening that way. It seems to amuse him,« added
Eugenia, with a little laugh.
    Acton felt more surprise than he confessed to, for this was a new view of
Clifford, whose irregularities had hitherto been quite without the romantic
element. He tried to laugh again, but he felt rather too serious, and after a
moment's hesitation his seriousness explained itself. »I hope you don't
encourage him,« he said. »He must not be inconstant to poor Lizzie.«
    »To your sister?«
    »You know they are decidedly intimate,« said Acton.
    »Ah,« cried Eugenia, smiling, »has she - has she« -
    »I don't know,« Acton interrupted, »what she has. But I always supposed that
Clifford had a desire to make himself agreeable to her.«
    »Ah, par exemple!« the Baroness went on. »The little monster! The next time
he becomes sentimental I will tell him that he ought to be ashamed of himself.«
    Acton was silent a moment. »You had better say nothing about it.«
    »I had told him as much already, on general grounds,« said the Baroness.
»But in this country, you know, the relations of young people are so
extraordinary that one is quite at sea. They are not engaged when you would
quite say they ought to be. Take Charlotte Wentworth, for instance, and that
young ecclesiastic. If I were her father I should insist upon his marrying her;
but it appears to be thought there is no urgency. On the other hand,
