He had resolutely refused to think of Miss Sally; he had been able to withstand the suggestions of her in the presence of her handmaid--supposed to be potent in nursing and herb-lore--whom she had detached to wait upon him, and he had returned politely formal acknowledgments to her inquiries.

He had determined to continue this personal avoidance as far as possible until he was relieved, on the ground of that BUSINESS expediency which these events had made necessary.

She would see that he was only accepting the arguments with which she had met his previous advances.

Briefly, he had recourse to that hopeless logic by which a man proves to himself that he has no reason for loving a certain woman, and is as incontestably convinced by the same process that he has.

And in the midst of it he weakly fell asleep, and dreamed that he and Miss Sally were walking in the cemetery; that a hideous snake concealed among some lilies, over which the young girl was bending, had uplifted its triangular head to strike.