awkwardness was that of youth, and her disordered hair and
dress belonged also to her age, for she was at that troublesome period
when frocks are constantly getting too short, and sleeves too scanty.
Janey was shuffling slowly round the visitor, admiring her at every
point; her garments were not made as dresses were made in Carlingford.
Their fit and their texture were alike too perfect for anything that
ever came out of High Street. The furred jacket had not been seen in
Grange Lane before. Perhaps it was because the cold had become more
severe, an ordinary and simple reason--or because Clarence Copperhead,
who knew her, and in whose eyes it was important to bate no jot of her
social pretensions, was here; and the furred jacket was beyond
comparison with anything that had been seen for ages in Carlingford. The
deep border of fur round the velvet, the warm waddings and paddings, the
close fit up to the throat, were excellencies which warranted Janey's
tour of inspection. Phoebe perceived it very well, but did not confuse
the girl by taking any notice, and in her heart she was herself slightly
pre-occupied, wondering (as Ursula had done) what the man had come here
for, and what he would say when he saw her. Both of these young women
had a secret belief that something romantic, something more than the
mere prose of reading in the first tutor's house that happened to have
been suggested to him, had brought young Copperhead to such an unlikely
place as Carlingford. Ursula had by this time learned to reject this
hypothesis with much indignation at herself for having entertained it,
but Phoebe still felt slightly fluttered by this possibility, and was
eager for the entrance of Clarence. She would know at once what had
brought him, she said to herself, the moment she caught his eye.

And though Mr. May had reconciled himself so completely to the Tozer
business, the appearance of Tozer's granddaughter gave him a momentary
shock. "What did you do with my grandfather's letter? he thought her
eyes said, and the meeting confused and disturbed him. This, however,
was only for a moment. He was a man to whom it was always possible to
make himself agreeable to women, and though he felt so easy in his mind
about Tozer, still it was evident that to conciliate Tozer's relation,
and that so influential a relation, was on the whole a good thing to do.
He was going up to her accordingly with outstretched hands, and the most
amiable inquiries