e conference with a gentleman whom she had never seen before. At
that hour it was so rare an event in the life of Mr. Mivers to be found
in the drawing-room, and that he should have an acquaintance unknown to
his helpmate was a circumstance so much rarer still, that Mrs. Mivers
may well be forgiven for keeping St. John standing at the door till she
had recovered her amaze.

Meanwhile Mr. Mivers rose in some confusion, and was apparently about to
introduce his guest, when that gentleman coughed, and pinched the
host's arm significantly. Mr. Mivers coughed also, and stammered out: "A
gentleman, Mrs. M.,--a friend; stay with us a day or two. Much honoured,
hum!"

Mrs. Mivers stared and courtesied, and stared again. But there was an
open, good-humoured smile in the face of the visitor, as he advanced and
took her hand, that attracted a heart very easily conciliated. Seeing
that that was no moment for further explanation, she plumped herself
into a seat and said,--

"But bless us and save us, I am keeping you standing, Mr. St. John!"

"St. John!" repeated the visitor, with a vehemence that startled Mrs.
Mivers. "Your name is St. John, sir,--related to the St. Johns of
Laughton?"

"Yes, indeed," answered Percival, with his shy, arch smile. "Laughton at
present has no worthier owner than myself."

The gentleman made two strides to Percival and shook him heartily by the
hand.

"This is pleasant indeed!" he exclaimed. "You must excuse my freedom;
but I knew well poor old Sir Miles, and my heart warms at the sight of
his representative."

Percival glanced at his new acquaintance, and on the whole was
prepossessed in his favour. He seemed somewhere on the sunnier side of
fifty, with that superb yellow bronze of complexion which betokens long
residence under Eastern skies. Deep wrinkles near the eyes, and a dark
circle round them, spoke of cares and fatigue, and perhaps dissipation.
But he had evidently a vigour of constitution that had borne him
passably through all; his frame was wiry and nervous; his eye bright
and full of life; and there was that abrupt, unsteady, mercurial
restlessness in his movements and manner which usually accompanies the
man whose sanguine temperament prompts him to concede to the impulse,
and who is blessed or cursed with a superabundance of energy, according
as circumstance may favour or judgment correct that equivocal gift of
constitution.

Percival said something appropriate in reply to so