, and there was a proud flush from her eye, yet she resisted
his efforts to detain her, and when he placed himself before her to
prevent her leaving him, she opened a door near her, and though he
followed her quickly through it, he was just in time to see her rushing
up a private staircase. He would not leave the house without an
interview, and going into one of the parlors, he rang the bell, and
requested to see Mrs. Blakely, the lady of the house. She came, looking
very haughty and very angry. He apologized for his intrusion, but
expressed a wish to see a young lady, Miss Watson, who was, he
perceived, under her care. With a yet haughtier air, Mrs. Blakely
replied, "I am not acquainted with any young _lady_ of the name of
Watson. Lucy Watson, the girl whom you met in the hall just now--is my
seamstress. If you wish to see her, I will send her down to you, though
I do not generally allow my servants to receive their visitors here."

"I shall be happy to see her wherever you please," was Edward Houstoun's
very truthful reply.

Mrs. Blakely left him, and he stationed himself at the door to watch for
Lucy. Minutes, which seemed to him hours, passed, and she came not. At
length, as he was about to ring again, steps were heard approaching; he
turned quickly, but it was not Lucy. The girl who entered handed him a
sealed note. He tore it open and read--"I dare not see you. When you
receive this I shall have left the house, and, as no one knows whither I
have gone, questions would be useless."

In an instant he was in the street, looking with eager eyes hither and
thither for some trace of the lost one. He looked in vain, yet he went
towards his office with happier feelings than he had long known. He knew
now where Lucy was, and a thousand expedients suggested themselves, by
which he could not fail to see her. If he could only converse with her
for a few minutes, he was assured he could prevail on her to leave her
present position, of which he could not for a moment bear to think. His
heart swelled, his brow flushed, whenever the remembrance of that
position flashed upon his mind, yet he never for an instant regarded it
as changing his relations with Lucy, or lessening his desire to call her
his. He recollected with pleasure two circumstances which had scarcely
been remarked at the moment of their occurrence. The man who had opened
the door to him, when he saw him spring forward to meet Lucy, had
exclaimed, "Oh! it was _Miss