You
have not talked to me like other men. You have treated me as if I, at
least, had common sense. I thank you for that; and I like you
because----"
She did not finish the sentence, for she could not say "because you
are Arthur's friend." That would have betrayed the miserable secret
tugging at her heart, and prompting her to refuse Thornton Hastings,
who had also thought of Arthur Leighton, wondering if it were thus
that she rejected him, and if in the background there was another love
standing between her and the two men to win whom many a woman would
almost have given her right hand. To say that Thornton was not a
little piqued at her refusal would be false. He had not expected it,
accustomed, as he was, to adulation; but he tried to put that feeling
down, and his manner was even more kind and considerate than ever as
he walked slowly back to the hotel, where Mrs. Meredith was waiting
for them, her practised eye detecting at once that something was
amiss. Thornton Hastings knew Mrs. Meredith thoroughly, and, wishing
to shield Anna from her displeasure, he preferred stating the facts
himself to having them wrung from the pale, agitated girl who, bidding
him good night, went quickly to her room; so, when she was gone, and
he stood for a moment alone with Mrs.
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