Page:Saxe Holm's Stories, Series Two.djvu/372

362 Edward Balloure was, for once, dumb. When Susan stopped playing, he bent over her and said in a low tone:—

"I hope you will forgive me. I never dreamed that you had so strong a regard for Mr. Lawton. I thought he was Mrs. Lawton's friend, and somehow I had often fancied that he bored you."

"You were never more mistaken in your life, Professor Balloure," answered Susan, composedly. "Mr. Lawton is a person who makes you contented by his simple presence,—he is so quiet, and yet so full of vitality."

"She has studied Mr. Lawton then, feels a charm in his presence, and has reflected upon it enough to analyze it." All this passed through the professor's mind, and gave a peculiar bitterness to the coldly civil tone in which he replied, "Ah! I should not have thought that possible. It is only another of the many illustrations of the difference between the feminine and the masculine standards of judging men." Susan colored, and was about to speak indignantly, changed her mind, closed her lips and smiled, and when Edward Balloure saw the smile, his heart sank within him. By that smile he knew that his reign, so far as it had been a reign, was over, and Tom Lawton's had begun.

Two weeks from that day Professor and Mrs. Balloure sailed for Europe. The sudden announcement of their plans caused no astonishment; it had