He was too ill to feel much hunger, but to please her, he managed to sip it by slow degrees, talking to her between-whiles.
"You say you live alone here,"-- he murmured--"But are you always alone ?" "Always,--ever since father died." "How long is that ago ?" "Five years." "You are not--you have not been--married ?" She laughed.
"No indeed! I'm an old maid!" "Old ?" And he raised his eyes to her face.

"You are not old!" "Well, I'm not young, as young people go,"-- she declared--"I'm thirty-four.

I was never married for myself in my youth,--and I shall certainly never be married for my money in my age!" Again her pretty laugh rang softly on the silence.

"But I'm quite happy, all the same!" He still looked at her intently,--and all suddenly it dawned upon him that she was a beautiful woman.

He saw, as for the first time, the clear transparency of her skin, the soft brilliancy of her eyes, and the wonderful masses of her warm bronze brown hair.