Dennistoun turned to leave the mother and son to their conversation,
which was so full of fate, the door of the drawing-room opened almost
upon her as she was about to go out, and with a little demonstration and
pride, as of a name which it was a distinction even to be permitted
to say, of a visitor whose arrival could not be but an honour and
delightful surprise, the husband of the landlady--the man of the house,
once a butler of the highest pretensions, now only condescending to
serve his lodgers when the occasion was dignified--swept into the room,
noiseless and solemn, holding open the door, and announced "Lord St.
Serf." Mrs. Dennistoun fell back as if she had met a ghost; and Elinor,
too, drew back a step, becoming as pale as if she had been the ghost her
mother saw. The gasp of the long breath they both drew made a sound in
the room where the very air seemed to tingle; and young Philip, raising
his head, saw, coming in, the man whom he had seen in court--the man who
had gazed at him in the theatre, the man of the opera-glass. But was
this then not the Philip Compton for whom Elinor Dennistoun had stood
forth, and borne witness before all the world?

He came in and stood without a word, waiting for a moment till the
servant was gone and the door closed; and then he advanced with a step,
the very assurance and quickness of which showed his hesitation and
uncertainty. He did not hold out his hands--much less his arms--to her.
"Nell?" he said, as if he had been asking a question, "Nell?"

She seemed to open her lips to speak, but brought forth no sound; and
then Mrs. Dennistoun came in with the grave voice of every day, "Will
you sit down?"

He looked round at her, perceiving her for the first time. "Ah," he
said, "mamma! how good that you are here. It is a little droll though,
don't you think, when a man comes into the bosom of his family after
an absence of eighteen years, that the only thing that is said to him
should be, 'Will you sit down?' Better that, however, a great deal, than
'Will you go away?'"

He sat down as she invited him, with a short laugh. He was perfectly
composed in manner. Looking round him with curious eyes, "Was this one
of the places," he said, "Nell, that we stayed in in the old times?"

She answered "No" under her breath, her paleness suddenly giving way
to a hot flush of feverish agitation. And then she took refuge in a
vacant chair, unable to support herself, and he sat too, and the