d put her in that chair if I could do it, but I certainly
am sorry she disappointed you so. Would you like to have any of those
books? If you would, I'll get them for you."

"I am much obliged, Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "but I don't think I care
for any books. And let me say that I am very sorry for the way I spoke
to you, just now."

"Oh, don't mention that," said she. "If I'd been in your place, I should
have been mad enough to say anything. But it's no use to sit here and be
grumpy. You'd better let me go and get you a book. The "Critical
Magazine" for 1767 and 1768, is on that list, and I know there are lots
of queer, interesting things in it, but it takes a good while to hunt
them out from the other things for which you would not care at all. And
then there are all the "Spectators," and "Ramblers," and "The World
Displayed" in eight volumes, which, from what I saw when I looked
through it, seems to be a different kind of world from the one I live
in; and there are others that you will see on your list. But there is
one book which I have been reading lately which I think you will find
odder and funnier than any of the rest. It is the "Geographical Grammar"
by Mr Salmon. Suppose I bring you that. It is a description of the whole
world, written more than a hundred years ago, by an Irish gentleman who,
I think, never went anywhere."

"Thank you," said Lawrence, "I shall be obliged to you if you will be
kind enough to bring me that one." He was glad for her to go away, even
for a little time, that he might think. The smart of the disappointment
caused by the non-appearance of Miss March was beginning to subside a
little. Looking at it more quietly and reasonably, he could see that, in
her position, it would be actually unmaidenly for her to come to him by
herself. It was altogether another thing for this other girl, and,
therefore, perhaps it was quite proper to send her. But, in spite of
whatever reasonableness there might have been in it, he chafed under
this propriety. It would have been far better, he thought, if she had
come and told him that she could not possibly accept him, and that
nothing more must be said about it. But then he did not believe, if she
had given him time to say the words he wished to say, that she would
have come to such a decision; and as he called up her lovely face and
figure, as it stood framed in the open doorway, with a background of the
sunlit arbor and fields, the gorgeous distant fol