to force the steward's situation on
his friend.

The summer afternoon was warm; the summer air was faint and still. On
the upper and the lower floor of the cottage the windows were all
open. From one of them, on the upper story, the sound of voices was
startlingly audible in the quiet of the park as Midwinter paused on the
outer side of the garden inclosure. The voice of a woman, harsh, high,
and angrily complaining--a voice with all the freshness and the
melody gone, and with nothing but the hard power of it left--was the
discordantly predominant sound. With it, from moment to moment, there
mingled the deeper and quieter tones, soothing and compassionate, of the
voice of a man. Although the distance was too great to allow Midwinter
to distinguish the words that were spoken, he felt the impropriety of
remaining within hearing of the voices, and at once stepped forward to
continue his walk.

At the same moment, the face of a young girl (easily recognizable as the
face of Miss Milroy, from Allan's description of her) appeared at the
open window of the room. In spite of himself, Midwinter paused to look
at her. The expression of the bright young face, which had smiled
so prettily on Allan, was weary and disheartened. After looking out
absently over the park, she suddenly turned her head back into the room,
her attention having been apparently struck by something that had just
been said in it. "Oh, mamma, mamma," she exclaimed, indignantly, "how
_can_ you say such things!" The words were spoken close to the window;
they reached Midwinter's ears, and hurried him away before he heard
more. But the self-disclosure of Major Milroy's domestic position had
not reached its end yet. As Midwinter turned the corner of the garden
fence, a tradesman's boy was handing a parcel in at the wicket gate
to the woman servant. "Well," said the boy, with the irrepressible
impudence of his class, "how is the missus?" The woman lifted her hand
to box his ears. "How is the missus?" she repeated, with an angry toss
of her head, as the boy ran off. "If it would only please God to take
the missus, it would be a blessing to everybody in the house."

No such ill-omened shadow as this had passed over the bright domestic
picture of the inhabitants of the cottage, which Allan's enthusiasm
had painted for the contemplation of his friend. It was plain that
the secret of the tenants had been kept from the landlord so far. Five
minutes more of walking bro