; and to this spot
each as silently loitered, and as listlessly turned back again without a
word.

"We are waiting for Mr. Dunn, Augusta, ain't we?" asked Lord Glengariff,
as if the thought had just suddenly struck him for the first time.

"Yes," replied she, gravely; "he promised us his company to-day at
dinner."

"Are you quite sure it was to-day he mentioned?" said he, with an
affected indifference in his tone.

"Miss Kellett can inform us with certainty."

"He said Thursday, and in time for dinner," said Sybella, not a little
puzzled by this by-play of assumed forgetfulness.

"The man who makes his own appointments ought to keep them. I am five
minutes beyond the half-hour," said Lord Glengariff, as he looked at his
watch.

"I suspect you are a little fast," observed Lady Augusta.

"There!--I think I heard the crack of a postilion's whip," cried
Sybella, as she went outside the window to listen. Lady Augusta
followed, and was soon at her side.

"You appear anxious for Mr. Dunn's coming. Is he a _very_ intimate
friend of yours, Miss Kellett?" said she, with a keen, quick glance of
her dark eyes.

"He was the kind friend of my father, when he lived, and, since his
death, he has shown himself not less mindful of me. There--I hear the
horses plainly! Can't you hear them now, Lady Augusta?"

"And how was this kindness evidenced,--in your own case I mean?" said
Lady Augusta, not heeding her question.

"By advice, by counsel, by the generous interference which procured for
me my present station here, not to speak of the spirit of his letters to
me."

"So then you correspond with him?" asked she, reddening suddenly.

"Yes," said she, turning her eyes fully on the other. And thus they
stood for some seconds, when, with a slight, but very slight, motion of
impatience, Lady Augusta said,--

"I was not aware--I mean, I don't remember your having mentioned this
circumstance to me."

"I should have done so if I thought it could have had any interest for
you," said Sybella, calmly. "Oh, there is the carriage coming up the
drive; I knew I was not mistaken."

Lady Augusta made no reply, but returned hastily to the house. Bella
paused for a few seconds, and followed her.

No sooner was Mr. Dunn's carriage seen approaching the little bridge
over the stream than Lord Glengariff rang to order dinner.

"It will be a rebuke he well merits," said he, "to find the soup on the
table as he drives up."

There was so