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Mrs. Dysart viewed the matter with a pessimism which was scarcely to be distinguished from conventionality.

“I think it’s a kind of an imposition, Mr. Palmerston,” she said, as her boarder was about to start, “sendin’ you away down there for a total stranger. It’s a good thing you’re not bashful. Some young men would be terribly put out. I’m sure Jawn would ‘a’ been at your age. But my father wouldn’t have sent a strange young man after one of his daughters–he knowed us too well. My, oh! just to think of it! I’d have fell all in a heap.”

Palmerston ventured a hope that the young lady would not be completely unnerved.

“Oh, I’m not frettin’ about her,” said his hostess. “I don’t doubt she can take care of her self. If she’s like some of her folks, she’ll talk you blind.”

Palmerston drove away to hide the smile that teased the corners of his mouth.

“The good woman has the instincts of a chaperon, without the traditions,” he reflected, letting his smile break into a laugh. “Her sympathy is with the weaker sex when it comes to a personal encounter. We may need her services yet, who knows?”

Malaga was a flag-station, and the shed which was supposed to shelter its occasional passengers from the heat of summer and the rain of winter was flooded with afternoon sunshine. Palmerston drove into the square shadow of the shed roof, and set his feet comfortably upon the dashboard while he waited. He was not aware of any very lively curiosity concerning the young woman for whom he was waiting. That he had formed some nebulous hypothesis of vulgarity was evidenced by his whimsical hope that her prevailing atmosphere would not be musk; aggressive perfumery of some sort seemed inevitable. He found himself wondering what trait in her father had led him to this deduction, and drifted idly about in the haze of heredity until the whistle of the locomotive warned him to withdraw his feet from their elevation and betake himself to the platform. Half a minute later the engine panted onward and the young man found himself, with uplifted hat, confronting a slender figure clad very much as he was, save for the skirt that fell in straight, dark folds to the ground.

“Miss Brownell?” inquired Palmerston smiling.

The young woman looked at him with evident surprise.

“Where is my father?” she asked abruptly.

“He was unable to come. He regretted it very much. I was so fortunate as to take his place. Allow me”–He stooped toward her satchel.

“Unable to come–is he ill?” pursued the girl, without moving.

“Oh, no,” explained Palmerston hastily; “he is quite well. It was something else–some matter of business.”

“Business!” repeated the young woman, with ineffable scorn.

She turned and walked rapidly toward the buggy. Palmerston followed with her satchel. She gave him a preoccupied “Thank you” as he assisted her to a seat and shielded her dress with the shabby robe.

“Do you know anything about this business of my father’s?” she asked as they drove away.

“Very little; it is between him and Mr. Dysart, with whom I am boarding. Mr. Dysart has mentioned it to me.” The young man spoke with evident reluctance. His companion turned her clear, untrammeled gaze upon him.

“You needn’t be afraid to say what you think. Of course it is all nonsense,” she said bitterly.

Palmerston colored under her intent gaze, and smiled faintly.

“I have said what I think to Mr. Dysart. Don’t you really mean that I need not be afraid to say what you think?”

She was still looking at him, or rather at the place where he was. She turned a little more when he spoke, and regarded him as if he had suddenly materialized.

“I think it is all nonsense,” she said gravely, as if she were answering a question. Then she turned away again and knitted her brows. Palmerston glanced covertly now and then at her profile, unwillingly aware of its beauty. She was handsome, strikingly, distinguishedly handsome, he said to himself; but there was something lacking. It must be femininity, since he felt the lack and was masculine. He smiled to think how much alike they must appear–he and this very gentlemanly young woman beside him. He thought of her soft felt hat and the cut of her dark-blue coat, and there arose in him a rigidly subdued impulse to offer her a cigar, to ask her if she had a daily paper about her, to–She turned upon him suddenly, her eyes full of tears.