or. "I can go to my niece and talk to her, but the first
thing I'd know I'd blaze out at her, and then, as like as not, she'd
blaze back again, and then the next thing would be that she'd pack up
her things and go off to hunt up her fertilizer agent. And that mustn't
be. I don't want to get myself in any snarls, just now. There is nothing
for you to do, Mr Croft, but to wait till it clears off, so that dainty
young woman can come out of doors, and then I think I can manage it so
that you can get a chance to speak to her."

"I am very much obliged to you," said Lawrence. "I suppose I must wait."

"I'll see that Isham brings you a lot of dry hickory, so that you can
have a cheerful fire, even if you can't have cheerful company," said Mrs
Keswick, as she closed the door after her.

Lawrence looked through the window at the sky, which gave no promise of
clearing. And then he gazed into the fire, and considered his case. He
had spent a large portion of his life in considering his case, and,
therefore, the operation was a familiar one to him. This time the case
was not a satisfactory one. Everything in this love affair with Miss
March had gone on in a manner in which he had not intended, and of which
he greatly disapproved. No one in the world could have planned the
affair more prudently than he had planned it. He had been so careful not
to do anything rash, that he had, at first, concealed, even from the
lady herself, the fact that he was in love with her, and nothing could
be farther from his thoughts and desires than that any one else should
know of it. And yet, how had it all turned out? He had taken into his
confidence Mr Junius Keswick, Mr Brandon, old Mrs Keswick, Mrs Null, as
she wished to be called, and almost lastly, the lady herself. "If I
should lay bare my heart to the colored man, Isham," he said to himself,
"and the old centenarian in the cabin down there, I believe there would
be no one else to tell. Oh, yes, there is Candy, and the anti-detective.
By rights, they ought to know." He did not include the good little Peggy
in this category, because he was not aware that there was such a person.

After about an hour of these doleful cogitations, he again turned to
look out of his front window, which commanded a view of the larger
house, when he saw, coming down the steps of the porch, a not very tall
figure, wrapped in a waterproof cloak, with the hood drawn over its
head. He did not see the face of the figure,