commented Aglae. "I always tremble when I see him. You very fine gentleman too, Mr. Cosmo." 

 She moved to one of the inner doors, but as Cosmo was following her she raised her hand to prevent him and opened the door only a little way, then came back and said in a lower tone, "It's to hear the bell better when it rings. . . . Will you wait a little bit here?" she asked anxiously. 

 "I will," said Cosmo, "but surely you don't want to tremble before me. What is the matter?" 

 "Nothing at all is the matter." Aglae tossed her head, tied up in a bandana handkerchief, with something of the spirit of the old days. 

 Cosmo was amused. "I no tremble before you," she continued. "I always like you very much. I am glad with all my heart to see you here." 

 All the time she turned her ear to the door she had left the least bit ajar. She had on a high-waisted white calico dress, white stockings, and Genoese slippers on her feet. Her dark brown hands moved uneasily. 

 "And how is Madame la Comtesse?" asked Cosmo. 

 "Miss Adèle very well. Anyway she never says anything else. She very great lady now. All the town come here, but she wants to see you alone after all these years." 

 "It's very kind of her," said Cosmo. "I was wondering whether she remembered me at all." 

 Now the excitement of seeing him had worn off, he was surprised at the careworn expression of the mulatto's face. For a moment it seemed to him like a tragic mask, then came the flash of white teeth, strangely unlike a smile. 

 "She remember everything," said Aglae. "She . . . she . . . Mr. Cosmo, you no boy now. I tell you that Miss Adèle had not a moment's peace since she drive away from your big home in the country one very cold day. I remember very well. Little birds fall dead off the tree. I feel ready to fall dead myself." 

 "I was away at school," said Cosmo. He remembered that on his return the disappearance of those people had not produced a very strong impression on him. In fact, the only thing he had missed was, in the evening, the fair head of the stranger Adèle near the dark head of his sister Henrietta. And the next evening he had not even missed that! 

 While these thoughts were passing through his head he waited, looking 

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