ously. Then came in
Eustace himself, looking rather handsome, exceedingly nervous, and
beautifully got up--in a frock-coat, with a flower in it.

"Oh! how do you do?" he said to Augusta, holding out his hand, which she
took rather coldly.

"How do you do, Mr. Meeson," she answered. "Let me introduce you to Lady
Holmhurst. Mr. Meeson, Lady Holmhurst." Eustace bowed, and put his hat
down on the butter-dish, for he was very much overcome.

"I hope that I have not come too early," he said in great confusion, as
he perceived his mistake. "I thought that you would have done breakfast."

"Oh, not at all Mr. Meeson," said Lady Holmhurst. "Won't you have a cup
of tea? Augusta, give Mr. Meeson a cup of tea."

He took the tea, which he did not want in the least, and then there came
an awkward silence. Nobody seemed to know how to begin the conversation.

"How did you find the house, Mr. Meeson?" said Lady Holmhurst, at last.
"Miss Smithers gave you no address, and there are two Lady
Holmhursts--my mother-in-law and myself."

"Oh, I looked it out, and then I walked here last night and saw you both
sitting at the window."

"Indeed!" said Lady Holmhurst. "And why did you not come in? You might
have helped to protect Miss Smithers from the reporters."

"I don't know," he answered confusedly. "I did not like to; and, besides,
a policeman thought I was a suspicious character and told me to move on."

"Dear me, Mr. Meeson; you must have been having a good look at us."

Here Augusta interposed, fearing least her admirer--for with an unerring
instinct, she now guessed how matters stood--should say something
foolish. A young man who is capable of standing to stare at a house in
Hanover-square is, she thought, evidently capable of anything.

"I was surprised to see you yesterday," she said. "How did you know we
were coming?"

Eustace told her that he had seen it in the _Globe_. "I am sure you
cannot have been so surprised as I was," he went on, "I had made sure
that you were drowned. I went up to Birmingham to call on you after you
had gone, and found that you had vanished and left no address. The
maid-servant declared that you had sailed in a ship called the 'Conger
Eel'--which I afterwards found out was Kangaroo. And then she went down;
and after a long time they published a full list of the passengers and
your name was not among them, and I thought that after all you might have
got off the ship or something. Then, some days