r only with a reproof for coming gadding out, when she ought to be
hard at work; but when she heard the invitation, she became
wrathful--she had rather go ten miles out of her way than even look at
'that there Ford.'

But Charlotte explained her purpose, and implored, and put her in mind
that Mrs. Beckett was gone, and she had no protector; and Martha
relented, told her that if she had minded her she would never have been
in the scrape at all, but agreed, not without satisfaction, to afford
Mr. Delaford the society of his old acquaintance.

And so when Mr. Delaford, with his whiskers freshly curled and his
boots in a state of fascinating polish, walked up Dynevor Terrace, the
door was opened by Ellen, and the red-faced cook and the upright Mrs.
Martha sat on either side the fire. Daintily did he greet them, and
stand warming himself before the fire, adapting his conversation to
them for the next ten minutes, before he ventured to ask whether Miss
Arnold were still an inmate. 'Taking out dinner--taking in tea,'
gruffly replied Martha.

Mr. Delaford waited, but Ellen only ran in for one moment to fetch the
kettle, and Martha discoursed as usual on the gold mines in Peru.
By-and-by, when the parlour tea could by no possibility be supposed to
be farther prolonged, there swept into the kitchen the stately nurse.
Charlotte had run up to the nursery, and begged as a favour that she
might be left to watch the children, while Mrs. Nurse entertained Mr.
Delaford below-stairs; and in pity to so grand a gentleman, constrained
to mix with such 'low servants,' the nurse had yielded, and Charlotte
sat safe and sound by the nursery fire, smiling at his discomfiture,
and reading over Tom's letters with an easier conscience than for many
a day.

Mr. Delaford was too much of a gentleman to be uncivil to the three
dames by the kitchen fire, but he watched every step and every creaking
door. He even went the length of coming up to family prayers, in hopes
of there meeting Charlotte; but she only joined the procession at the
parlour door, and had flown upstairs, like a little bird, before he was
out again.

The gentleman was affronted, and resolved to make her feel it. They
could not but meet at the kitchen breakfast, and he barely acknowledged
her. This was the most trying stroke of all, for it set her, in the
eyes of the cook and nurse, on a level with the inferior servants, to
whom he would not have deigned a look, and it was n