orbs fastened
eagerly, almost ravenously, upon hers was?--her first emotion was one of
great surprise.

It was weeks since young Andrews had secretly elected her to be the lady
of his dreams--(when and where he had first beheld her, it boots not
here to say)--but he had been content to adore from afar, and had never
thrust himself upon her notice,--so that all the concentrated fire of
brooding, hopeless passion was not only visible, but almost
offensive--and yet it was not quite offensive.

The _lady_ within her stiffened, but the _woman_? At least she need not
be uncivil; to be haughty and supercilious, as Maud would have been
under like circumstances, went against the grain; she could keep the
young man at a distance without hurting his feelings; she--essayed a
remark.

Afterwards she laughed to think how that remark was leaped at; how it
was turned and twisted and stammered over. For very pity of his hopeless
confusion she had to rejoin kindly, and again the words were caught out
of her lips, and so on, and so on--and still the postmistress was
invisible behind the scenes.

Eventually, as we know, Leonore accepted an escort back to the Abbey
when the two errands were accomplished, and a message extracted from her
sister threw a properly respectable air over the whole proceeding.

Had things ended there, Dr. Humphrey Craig would not have returned home
unexpectedly on the present occasion. But he had heard whispers and
caught glimpses--he saw a gossip nudge her neighbour and look up a
bye-street; and looking himself, recognised two figures whose backs were
turned. Not a word said he; but he watched young Andrews narrowly that
evening, and the next, and on the third day he spoke.

He spoke, and the bubble burst.

Ignorant of any cause for the non-delivery of her prescribed tonic which
she had arranged to receive herself at one of the park lodges--since
General Boldero was not to be annoyed by the suspicion of ill-health,
and would infallibly make a fuss if medicines were handed in at the
front door--Leonore, after waiting some time in vain, returned home and
said nothing about the matter;--but she started a little when she heard
a voice in the doorway a few hours later, and found that it proceeded
from Dr. Humphrey Craig.

He had not yet rung the bell; and took the liberty of a privileged old
friend to hail her instead of doing so.

"Mrs. Stubbs? It was you I wanted to see. If no one's about, I'll step
insid