One never could tell in the least what she really thought of it.

She smiled with pale lips and weary eyes upon Franklin, listened to him gravely and with concentration, and, when she did speak, it was, once or twice, with gaiety, as though he had amused and surprised her.

Yet Althea felt that her thoughts were far from Franklin, far from everybody in the room.

And meanwhile, of everybody in the room, it was the lean, sallow young man beside her who seemed at once the least impressed and the most interested.

But that was so like Franklin; no one could outdo him in interest, and no one could outdo him in placidity.