" Either he must come home or she should come to him, one
or the other.
But before evening his blueness had disappeared. He had just returned
to his room, after stepping into the hall to drop his letter in the mail
chute, when his niece knocked at the door. He was surprised to see her,
for she had not spoken to him, except in brief reply to questions, since
their misunderstanding in that very room. He looked at her wonderingly,
not knowing what to say or what to expect; but she spoke first.
"Captain Warren," she began, hurriedly, "the last time I came to
you--the last time I came here, I came to ask a favor, and you--I
thought you--"
She was evidently embarrassed and confused. Her guardian was
embarrassed, also, but he tried to be hospitable.
"Yes, Caroline," he said, gravely, "I know what you mean. Won't
you--won't you sit down?"
To his surprise, she accepted the invitation, taking the same chair she
had taken on the occasion of their former interview. But there was a
look in her eyes he had never seen there before; at least, not when she
was addressing him.
She went on, speaking hastily, as though determined to head off any
questioning on his part.
"Captain Warren," she began once more, "the time I came to you in this
room you were, so I thought, unreasonable and unkind.
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