ry from the train. He had been accompanied by another gentleman, who
had been introduced to him before he left the north, and whom Mr.
Middlemass would not allow to go over to the inn at Stoneham, where he
was to spend a few days with a friend. Mr. Middlemass and his new
acquaintance were still at dinner.

Miss West was hurrying away after having discharged her commission, in
order not to detain Mrs. Middlemass from her husband and his guest, and
not to impose on master or servant the trouble of seeing her home.

But as they were exchanging smothered good-byes near the open
dining-room door, Mr. Middlemass, who was frank and hospitable, broke
through the clatter of knives and forks, and called out unceremoniously,
"My dear, who is that you are taking leave of?"

"It is only Miss West, my dear," his wife replied softly to quiet him.

"Miss West!" and he banged from his seat and bounced to the door. "Miss
West! the very woman in the nick of time. Stay, Miss West, and thank
your stars; here's an old friend come a long way to see you."

Miss West turned, and there, behind the cordial face of the master of
the house, who suspected nothing, and was only happy to be helpful to a
brother merchant, were the perfectly recognizable lineaments of that old
personable fellow, Bill Nairne.

Miss West for a second fancied that the letter she had posted to him ten
minutes before had sped like a telegram to its destination, and that he
had sped back on the telegraphic wires to remonstrate with her and
expose her. The next instant she was sensible that the accident of his
being there in person must be a result of a previous change of mind on
his part.

Bill Nairne had stared, and stammered in mechanical accents, after Mr.
Middlemass supplied him with the keynote, "Miss West, the very person,
let us thank our stars!" But he soon recovered himself, and then shook
her hand warmly, and declared, in his old, off-hand manner, "I shall see
you home, Miss West;" for Miss West had no sooner recovered her breath
and her small share of colour, than she combated Mr. Middlemass's
pressing invitation to remain and spend the evening with them. No; Miss
Sandys was expecting her; she thanked him and Mrs. Middlemass, but she
could not stay on any account, so that there would be no use in sending
over a message or a note to Carter Hill. Neither was it on Miss West's
cards that Bill Nairne should escort her to Carter Hill, or, indeed,
that she should