"You can come with Mr. Tetlow when he gets back."

"I'd prefer to talk with him alone," said Norman. "Perhaps I might see
some way to be of service to him."

Her expression was vividly different from what it had been when he
offered to help _her_. She became radiant with happiness. "I do hope
you'll come," she said--her voice very low and sweet, in the effort she
was making to restrain yet express her feelings.

"When? This evening?"

"He's always at home."

"You'll be there?"

"I'm always there, too. We have no friends. It's not easy to make
acquaintances in the East--congenial acquaintances."

"I'd want you to be there," he explained with great care, "because you
could help him and me in getting acquainted."

"Oh, he'll talk freely--to anyone. He talks only the one subject. He
never thinks of anything else."

She was resting her crossed arms on the back of her chair and, with her
chin upon them, was looking at him--a childlike pose and a childlike
expression. He said: "You are _sure_ you are twenty?"

She smiled gayly. "Nearly twenty-one."