We'll agree to differ--Olga dear, come and see us in the old way.

Come and dine this evening; we shall be alone." But the unkempt girl was not to be persuaded, and Irene presently took her leave.

The conversation had perturbed her; she went away in a very unwonted frame of mind, beset with troublesome fancies and misgivings.
Olga's state seemed to her thoroughly unwholesome, to be regarded as a warning; it was evidently contagious; it affected the imagination with morbid allurement.

Morbid, surely; Irene would not see it in any other light.

She felt the need of protecting herself against thoughts which had never until now given her a moment's uneasiness.