One is never so good, I suppose, but that one can improve a little." "If you wish your mother and Miss Garland to come," Rowland suggested, "you had better go home and bring them." "Oh, I can't think of leaving Europe, for many a day," Roderick answered.

"At present it would quite break the charm.

I am just beginning to profit, to get used to things and take them naturally.

I am sure the sight of Northampton Main Street would permanently upset me." It was reassuring to hear that Roderick, in his own view, was but "just beginning" to spread his wings, and Rowland, if he had had any forebodings, might have suffered them to be modified by this declaration.

This was the first time since their meeting at Geneva that Roderick had mentioned Miss Garland's name, but the ice being broken, he indulged for some time afterward in frequent allusions to his betrothed, which always had an accent of scrupulous, of almost studied, consideration.