eetest, "I am by no means a
stranger to Miss Mackenzie."

Then the ladies all looked at him, and thought they had never seen
anything so terrible as that squint.

"Miss Mackenzie is making a long visit at the Cedars," said Miss
Colza, "that is all we know at present. I am told the Balls are
very nice people, but perhaps a little worldly-minded; that's to be
expected, however, from people who live out of the west-end from
London. I live in Finsbury Square, or at least, I did before I came
here, and I ain't a bit ashamed to own it. But of course the west-end
is the nicest."

Then Mr Maguire got up, saying that he should probably do himself the
pleasure of calling on Miss Mackenzie at the Cedars, and went his
way.

"I wonder what he's after," said Mrs Mackenzie, as soon as the door
was shut.

"Perhaps he came to tell her to bear it all with Christian
resignation," said Miss Colza; "they always do come when anything's
in the wind like that; they like to know everything before anybody
else."

"It's my belief he's after her money," said Mrs Mackenzie.

"With such a squint as that!" said Mary Jane; "I wouldn't have him
though he was made of money, and I hadn't a farthing."

"Beauty is but skin deep," said Miss Colza.

"And it's manners to wait till you are asked," said Mrs Mackenzie.

Mary Jane chucked up her head with disdain, thereby indicating that
though she had not been asked, and though beauty is but skin deep,
still she held the same opinion.

Mr Maguire, as he went away to a clerical advertising office in the
neighbourhood of Exeter Hall, thought over the matter profoundly.
It was clear enough to him that the Mackenzies of Gower Street were
not interfering with him; very probably they might have hoped and
attempted to keep the heiress among them; that assertion that there
was no room for her in the house--as though they were and ever had
been averse to having her with them--seemed to imply that such was
the case. It was the natural language of a disappointed woman. But
if so, that hope was now over with them. And then the young lady had
plainly exposed the suspicions which they all entertained as to the
Balls. These grand people at the Cedars, this baronet's family at
Twickenham, must have got her to come among them with the intention
of keeping her there. It did not occur to him that the baronet or the
baronet's son would actually want Miss Mackenzie's money. He presumed
baronets to be rich people; but