rly gave way, and resigned himself to physical enjoyment, and
sipped his tea, and looked over his cup at Mary, sitting there
bright and kind and ready to go on pouring out for him to any
extent. It seemed to him as if an atmosphere of light and joy
surrounded her, within the circle of which he was sitting and
absorbing. Tea was the only stimulant that Grey ever took, and he
had more need of it than usual, for he had given away the chop,
which was his ordinary dinner, to a starving woman. He was faint
with fasting and the bad air of the hovels in which he had been
spending his morning. The elegance of the room, the smell of the
flowers, the charm of companionship with a young woman of his own
rank, and the contrast of the whole to his common way of life,
carried him away, and hopes and thoughts began to creep into his
head to which he had long been a stranger. Mary did her very best
to make his visit pleasant to him. She had a great respect for
the self-denying life which she knew he was leading; and the
nervousness and shyness of his manners were of a kind, which,
instead of infecting her, gave her confidence, and made her feel
quite at her ease with him. She was so grateful to him for having
delivered her out of her recent embarrassment, that she was more
than usually kind in her manner.

She saw how he was enjoying himself; and thought what good it
must do him to forget his usual occupations for a short time. So
she talked positive gossip to him, risked his opinion on riding
habits, and very soon was telling him the plot of a new novel
which she had just been reading, with an animation and
playfulness which would have warmed the heart of an anchorite.
For a short quarter of an hour Grey resigned himself; but at the
end of that time he became suddenly and painfully conscious of
what he was doing, and stopped himself short in the middle of an
altogether worldly compliment, which he detected himself in the
act of paying to his too fascinating young hostess. He felt that
retreat was his only chance, and so grasped his hat again, and
rose with a deep sigh, and a sudden change of manner which
alarmed Mary.

"I hope you are not ill, Mr. Grey?" she said, anxiously.

"No, not the least, thank you. But--but--in short, I must go to
my work. I ought to apologize, indeed, for having stayed so
long."

"Oh, you have not been here more than twenty minutes. Pray stay,
and see mamma; she must be in directly."

"Thank you; you