Blotted Out

s any feeling at all, that we consider him such, now quietly offers Claire an explanation about " our compact," as he persists in calling it. " Miss Tim (what is your proper name, by the way ?) and I have agreed to strike up a friendship on the sound and reasonable basis of perfect confidence and honestliking, with every particle of sentiment eliminated from it. It will do her good, for I shall be the soul of candour in my dealings with her, and tell her that she talks nonsense whenever she does talk nonsense; and in various ways I shall knock to pieces those rickety little edifices of prejudice that you and she are so fond of building up." He says all this in his light, half-mocking, half-serious way. Appeal and a slightly patronizing air are so strangely blended in his manner, that I am dubious as to whether I shall resent the freedom or fall into the fun of it. Before I have decided what line to take, Claire answers him, and staggers me. " A very good thing for Tim, indeed, Mr. Bligh. We both want our rough edges worn off a little, it must be admitted." (Claire's manner is soft and harmonious as a piece of delicately tinted grey velvet.) " Won't you take the trouble to demolish some of my foolish prejudices too ? " " I should be adopting them, I suspect,"he says in a low voice; and Claire seems not to hear him, for she has turned her head in the opposite direction, apparently much struck with some novel effect in the familiar landscape. When she doe...