CHAPTER VIII.
When Maria's father returned that night, he came, as usual, straight to the room wherein she and Mrs.Addix were sitting.

Maria regarded her father with a sort of contemptuous wonder, tinctured with unwilling admiration.

Her father, on his return from his evenings spent with Miss Ida Slome, looked always years younger than Maria had ever seen him.

There was the humidity of youth in his eyes, the flush of youth on his cheeks, the triumph of youth in his expression.

Harry Edgham, in spite of lines on his face, in spite, even, of a shimmer of gray and thinness of hair on the temples, looked as young as youth itself, in this rejuvenation of his affection, for he was very much in love with the woman whom he was to marry.