e dawned upon her suddenly a fear
lest she had talked too much, and her manner changed at once, while she
sank into an abstracted mood, and her eyes had in them a far-off look,
as if she were seeing the child who came to her upon the sands of
Aberystwyth and looked into her face with eyes she had never been able
to forget, and which she could now see so plainly, though the little
girl was thousands of miles away.

Dinner being over Hannah said it was time for her to go home, and Lucy
accordingly ordered the sleigh to be brought to the door.

"You will come to-morrow as early as possible," Hannah said to her
brother, who replied:

"Yes, immediately after breakfast, for I must go back to Boston on the
afternoon train, I have an engagement for Saturday."

"So soon?" Hannah said, in a tone of disappointment: "I hoped you would
stay longer; father will be so sorry; he has anticipated your visit so
much."

"It is impossible. I have promised for Saturday, and must keep the
appointment," and Burton Jerrold leisurely scraped and trimmed his thumb
nail, but did not explain that the appointment he must keep was with the
members of his club, who gave a dinner on Saturday.

He knew very well that he could remain in Allington until Saturday
afternoon and then reach home in time for the dinner; but the place was
almost as distasteful to him as to his wife, and he gladly seized upon
any pretext to shorten his stay as much as possible.

"Shall I tell father that you will come with Burton to-morrow?" Hannah
asked her sister, who instantly assumed that air of invalidism which she
found so convenient when anything disagreeable was suggested for her to
do.

Drawing her shawl more closely about her, and glancing with a little
shiver at the window, she replied:

"N-no, I hardly think I shall go out to-morrow, it will be so cold, and
probably stormy; but you may expect me for a little while on Saturday,
if the day is fine."

"But _I_ shall come and stay till Monday, and I hope you have a lot of
mince pies baked up. Last Thanksgiving we were in Paris, and had pea
soup, and brains, and eels, and stewed celery for dinner," Grey said, as
he kissed his aunt and bade her good-by.

CHAPTER VIII.

AFTER THE DINNER.

The carriage which took Hannah home also took Miss McPherson to the door
of her dwelling, a large, old-fashioned New England house, with a wide
hall through the center, and a square room on either side; one the
dr