seem to be taking that enjoyment
in her walk which was her wont. Her brows were slightly contracted
and she looked straight in front of her, without seeing anything in
particular, after the manner of persons whose attention is entirely
occupied in looking into their own minds, at something they do not
like. "It is too much!" she said, almost loud, her brows contracting
a little more as she spoke. "It was bad enough to have to furnish the
paper, but for me to have to carry the letter, is entirely too much!"
And, at this, she involuntarily glanced at the thick and double
stamped missive, which, having no pocket, she carried in her hand. She
had not looked at it before, and as her eyes fell upon the address,
she stopped so suddenly that Plez, who was dozing as he walked, nearly
ran into her. "What!" she exclaimed, "'Junius Keswick, five Q street,
Washington, District of Columbia!' Is it possible that Mr Croft has
been writing to him, all this time?" She now walked on; and although
she still seemed to notice not the material objects around her, the
frown disappeared from her brow, and her mental vision seemed to be
fixed upon something more pleasant than that which had occupied it
before. As it will be remembered, she had refused positively to have
anything to do with Lawrence's suit to Miss March, and it was a relief
to her to know that the letter she was carrying was not for that lady.
"But why," thought she, "should he be writing, for two whole evenings,
to Junius. I expected that he would write to her, to find out why she
went off and left him in that way, but I did not suppose he would want
to write to Junius. It seems to me they had time enough, that night
they were together, to talk over everything they had to say."

And then she began to wonder what they had to say, and, gradually, the
conviction grew upon her that Mr Croft was a very, very honorable man.
Of course it was wrong that he should have come here to try to win a
lady who, if one looked at it in the proper light, really belonged to
another. But it now came into her mind that Mr Croft must, by degrees,
have seen this, for himself, and that it was the subject of his long
conference with Junius, and also, most probably, of this letter.
The conference certainly ended amicably, and, in that case, it was
scarcely possible that Junius had given up his claim. He was not that
kind of a man.

If Mr Croft had become convinced that he ought to retire from this
cont