56
             A Hint in the Shape of a Question.
note from Sally, accompanying a book, �Ledbury,�
retained by her since the Grafton Centre days.
It had this postscript:              �On Tuesday eve-
ning, I was most agreeably surprised at receiving
a most superb bouquet, it was left at the door
quite anonymously, directed o me.  It is to your
delicacy and generosity that I am indebted?�
  Probably the gift of Nichols, her Saturday
night�s companion.   Did the girl think and
does she wish I were the sender?     The thing
gave me a curious sense of affection and pain
throughout the cold, miserable, though sunny
afternoon.    I am so weary and lonely now
that I cannot but be doubly sensitive to a girl�s
liking.    It�s no more, though my disavowal
of any passion for her may have set her think-
ing of me in that light � perhaps as an ex-
periment.   There are girls of whom it is easier
to suppose them capable of building up a romance
about a man than Sally.         Her very freedom and
boldness towards me forbids the supposition.
Why should I feel pain, then, about this incident?
Because the girl may be lonely, not too happy and
sorely in need of some one to love her dearly.   Han-
nah might know my feelings without blaming
me.      God love both of them! � will they ever
meet, I wonder?                      To Hought�s house,