Take everything for granted." He had turned away from her and walked mechanically, with his air of blind emotion, to the window, where for a minute he looked out.

"It has stopped raining," he said at last; "it's going to brighten." The place had three windows, and Nanda went to the next.

"Not quite yet--but I think it will." Mitchy soon faced back into the room, where after a brief hesitation he moved, as quietly, almost as cautiously, as if on tiptoe, to the seat occupied by his companion at the beginning of their talk.

Here he sank down watching the girl, who stood a while longer with her eyes on the garden.

"You want me, you say, to take her out of the Duchess's life; but where am I myself, if we come to that, but even more IN the Duchess's life than Aggie is?
I'm in it by my contacts, my associations, my indifferences--all my acceptances, knowledges, amusements.