;
and had they all turned their backs upon her? I now recollected having
seen Mrs. Wilson, in the early part of the evening, edging her chair
close up to my mother, and bending forward, evidently in the delivery of
some important confidential intelligence; and from the incessant wagging
of her head, the frequent distortions of her wrinkled physiognomy, and
the winking and malicious twinkle of her little ugly eyes, I judged it
was some spicy piece of scandal that engaged her powers; and from the
cautious privacy of the communication I supposed some person then present
was the luckless object of her calumnies: and from all these tokens,
together with my mother's looks and gestures of mingled horror and
incredulity, I now concluded that object to have been Mrs. Graham. I did
not emerge from my place of concealment till she had nearly reached the
bottom of the walk, lest my appearance should drive her away; and when I
did step forward she stood still and seemed inclined to turn back as it
was.

'Oh, don't let us disturb you, Mr. Markham!' said she. 'We came here to
seek retirement ourselves, not to intrude on your seclusion.'

'I am no hermit, Mrs. Graham--though I own it looks rather like it to
absent myself in this uncourteous fashion from my guests.'

'I feared you were unwell,' said she, with a look of real concern.

'I was rather, but it's over now. Do sit here a little and rest, and
tell me how you like this arbour,' said I, and, lifting Arthur by the
shoulders, I planted him in the middle of the seat by way of securing his
mamma, who, acknowledging it to be a tempting place of refuge, threw
herself back in one corner, while I took possession of the other.

But that word refuge disturbed me. Had their unkindness then really
driven her to seek for peace in solitude?

'Why have they left you alone?' I asked.

'It is I who have left them,' was the smiling rejoinder. 'I was wearied
to death with small talk--nothing wears me out like that. I cannot
imagine how they can go on as they do.'

I could not help smiling at the serious depth of her wonderment.

'Is it that they think it a duty to be continually talking,' pursued she:
'and so never pause to think, but fill up with aimless trifles and vain
repetitions when subjects of real interest fail to present themselves, or
do they really take a pleasure in such discourse?'

'Very likely they do,' said I; 'their shallow minds can hold no great
ideas, and their