The servant who opened the door, the same who had
admitted poor Crocker and had understood how much his young mistress
had been dismayed when the Post Office clerk had been announced,
was unwilling at once to show this other Post Office clerk into the
house, although he probably understood well the difference between
the two comers. "I'll go and see," he said, leaving George Roden
to sit or stand in the hall as he liked best. Then the man, with a
sagacity which certainly did him credit, made a roundabout journey
through the house, so that the lover stationed in the hall might not
know that his mistress was to be reached merely by the opening of a
single door. "A gentleman in the hall?" said Lady Frances.

"Mr. Roden, my lady," said the man.

"Show him in," said Lady Frances, allowing herself just a moment for
consideration,--a moment so short that she trusted that no hesitation
had been visible. And yet she had doubted much. She had been very
clear in explaining to her brother that she had made no promise. She
had never pledged herself to any one that she would deny herself to
her lover should he come to see her. She would not admit to herself
that even her brother, even her father, had a right to demand from
her such a pledge. But she knew what were her brother's wishes on
this matter, and what were the reasons for them. She knew also
how much she owed to him. But she too had suffered from that long
silence. She had considered that a lover whom she never saw, and
from whom she never heard, was almost as bad as no lover at all. She
had beaten her feathers against her cage, as she thought of this
cruel separation. She had told herself of the short distance which
separated Hendon from Holloway. She perhaps had reflected that had
the man been as true to her as was she to him, he would not have
allowed himself to be deterred by the injunctions either of father or
brother. Now, at any rate, when her lover was at the door, she could
not turn him away. It had all to be thought of, but it was thought of
so quickly that the order for her lover's admittance was given almost
without a pause which could have been felt. Then, in half a minute,
her lover was in the room with her.

Need the chronicler of such scenes declare that they were in each
other's arms before a word was spoken between them? The first word
that was spoken came from her. "Oh, George, how long it has been!"

"It has been long to me."

"But at last you have c