, then  are you free for the afternoon ? " 

"Entirely so. We will go after dinner, if the weather is 
good." 

The next morning, at the rehearsal, Rosalind noticed that 

Devereux seemed a little distrait  a very little, for he was too 

thoroughly accustomed to the social habitude of concealing what 

he felt, to betray, in any marked degree, the real absence of his 

mind. It was an unusual  w-ith him, for he generally 

kept his mind well under control ; but, since Mr. Stringfel- 

low's words the night before, his thoughts were running very 

much on Mary Carlisle. Not as a lover's thoughts run on the 

object of his choice  that was not to be expected  but as a 

man thinks of something which puzzles and  him. It 

was not any consideration of Mary herself which puzzled and 

disquieted Devereux, but a doubt which he could not decide, 

whether he should or should not speak to her definitely before 

the suit came off in the courts. He wished very much to do so 

before that time, for reasons which will be at once apparent. If 

 were already settled between them, the decision of the 

court would not matter ; but if  were not settled, and U 

10 



214 A QUESTION OF HOXOR. 

the decision were