n on the edge of the
table; hesitated drowsily, and said, "Which you please, dear."

"Mercy on me! it's a question for your taste, my good lady, not for
mine. Suppose you have a little of both? and suppose you begin with
the chicken, because Mr. Hartright looks devoured by anxiety to carve
for you."

Mrs. Vesey put the other dimpled hand back on the edge of the table;
brightened dimly one moment; went out again the next; bowed obediently,
and said, "If you please, sir."

Surely a mild, a compliant, an unutterably tranquil and harmless old
lady! But enough, perhaps, for the present, of Mrs. Vesey.

All this time, there were no signs of Miss Fairlie. We finished our
luncheon; and still she never appeared. Miss Halcombe, whose quick eye
nothing escaped, noticed the looks that I cast, from time to time, in
the direction of the door.

"I understand you, Mr. Hartright," she said; "you are wondering what
has become of your other pupil. She has been downstairs, and has got
over her headache; but has not sufficiently recovered her appetite to
join us at lunch. If you will put yourself under my charge, I think I
can undertake to find her somewhere in the garden."

She took up a parasol lying on a chair near her, and led the way out,
by a long window at the bottom of the room, which opened on to the
lawn. It is almost unnecessary to say that we left Mrs. Vesey still
seated at the table, with her dimpled hands still crossed on the edge
of it; apparently settled in that position for the rest of the
afternoon.

As we crossed the lawn, Miss Halcombe looked at me significantly, and
shook her head.

"That mysterious adventure of yours," she said, "still remains involved
in its own appropriate midnight darkness. I have been all the morning
looking over my mother's letters, and I have made no discoveries yet.
However, don't despair, Mr. Hartright. This is a matter of curiosity;
and you have got a woman for your ally. Under such conditions success
is certain, sooner or later. The letters are not exhausted. I have
three packets still left, and you may confidently rely on my spending
the whole evening over them."

Here, then, was one of my anticipations of the morning still
unfulfilled. I began to wonder, next, whether my introduction to Miss
Fairlie would disappoint the expectations that I had been forming of
her since breakfast-time.

"And how did you get on with Mr. Fairlie?" inquired Miss Halcombe, as
we left t