family is not given to gush. Isabelle will tell you it is not good form.
So we keep our emotions hermetically sealed and stowed away under
decorous lock and key, polite society having found them inconvenient
things to handle, partaking of the nature of nitroglycerine, you know,
and liable to spontaneous combustion."

He opened the door as he spoke and Evadne followed him into the hall.
She shivered, although a warm breath of heated air fanned her cheek. The
atmosphere was chilly.

Marion, hurried forward to greet her, followed more leisurely by
Isabelle and her mother, who touched her lips lightly to her forehead.

"I hope you have had a pleasant journey, my dear, although you must
find our climate rather stormy. I think you might as well let the girls
take you at once to your room and then we will have dinner."

"Where is the Judge?" inquired Louis.

"Detained again at the office. He has just telephoned not to wait for
him. He is killing himself with overwork."

To Evadne the dinner seemed interminable and she found herself
contrasting the stiff formality with the genial hospitality of her
father's table. She saw again the softly lighted room with its open
windows through which the flowers peeped, and heard his gay badinage and
his low, sweet laugh. Could she be the same Evadne, or was it all a
dream?

Isabelle stood beside her as she began to prepare for the night. She