was to sleep on a mattress on the floor.

CHAPTER 4

Will you walk into my parlour?' said a spider to a fly.

--MARY HOWITT

And where was Arthur?

Spending the day with his sporting friends, much to his own
satisfaction, till in the evening, greatly against his will, he was
taken out to dine with an old Mr. Randall, of Gothlands, the master of
the hounds.

His nieces, the Misses Marstone, were the ladies of the
house--well-dressed people, a little 'passees', but apparently not
having found it out. Arthur watched the arrivals hoping that the order
of precedence might not consign him to the flow of talk, of which he
had already had quite a sufficiency, when, to his surprise, two ladies,
evidently at home, entered together.

One--thin, sallow, spectacled--was, as he knew, an inhabitant; but the
other--small, slight, and retiring, and, in spite of clinging unfresh
muslin and shrinking figure, with the unmistakable air of high breeding,
was a most unexpected sight. At least, thought he, here was one lady
who would not bore him, and making his way to her, he inquired for
Lady Elizabeth. Emma, on the other hand, asked after Violet; and it was
curious that both questions were put and answered with constraint, as if
each was conscious of being something like a truant.

Another surprise. 'Mr. Gardner.' In walked Mark himself, and, after
shaking hands with the elder Miss Marstone, came towards Emma and her
friend, and was received with cordial familiarity. He entered into
conversation with Arthur, drawing a little further from Miss Brandon at
each step, till having brought him close to old Mr. Randall, and placed
him under the infliction of a long prose about the hounds, he retreated,
and was soon again in conversation with the two friends, Emma's face
raised and lighted up with eagerness.

Colonel Martindale had no escape from the head of the table and the
eldest of the Misses Marstone. Resigning himself to his fate, he made
talk; and, though now broader, redder, and somewhat coarser in feature
and complexion than he had been a few years ago, he looked so gay and
unencumbered, that his neighbour speculated as to whether he could be
the eldest son, and resolved to discover what her sister, Sarah Theresa,
knew of him.

'It is so pleasant when friends meet unexpectedly,' said she. 'I did not
know you were acquainted with either of our guests.'

'Miss Brandon is a near neighbour of my father, and a