At such times she astonished him by taking his most solemn histrionics with flippant incredulity, and even burlesquing them.

But he could see, all the same, that he had caught her fancy, and he admired the skill with which she punished his neglect when they met in New York.

He had really come very near forgetting the Leightons; the intangible obligations of mutual kindness which hold some men so fast, hung loosely upon him; it would not have hurt him to break from them altogether; but when he recognized them at last, he found that it strengthened them indefinitely to have Alma ignore them so completely.

If she had been sentimental, or softly reproachful, that would have been the end; he could not have stood it; he would have had to drop her.

But when she met him on his own ground, and obliged him to be sentimental, the game was in her hands.