don, presented herself at Durnmelling,
found that she was more welcome than looked for, and the same hour
resumed her duties about Hesper.

It was with curiously mingled feelings that she gazed from her window
on the chimneys of Thornwick. How much had come to her since first, in
the summer-seat at the end of the yew-hedge, Mr. Wardour opened to her
the door of literature! It was now autumn, and the woods, to get young
again, were dying their yearly death. For the moment she felt as if
she, too, had begun to grow old. Ministration had tired her a
little--but, oh! how different its weariness from that which came of
labor amid obstruction and insult! Her heart beat a little slower,
perhaps, but she could now be sad without losing a jot of hope. Nay,
rather, the least approach of sadness would begin at once to wake her
hope. She regretted nothing that had come, nothing that had gone. She
believed more and more that not anything worth having is ever lost;
that even the most evanescent shades of feeling are safe for those who
grow after their true nature, toward that for which they were made--in
other and higher words, after the will of God.

But she did for a moment taste some bitterness in her cup, when, one
day, on the footpath of Testbridge, near the place where, that
memorable Sunday, she met Mr. Wardour, she met him again, and, looking
at her, and plainly recognizing her, he passed without salutation. Like
a sudden wave the blood rose to her face, and then sank to the deeps of
her heart; and from somewhere came the conviction that one day the
destiny of Godfrey Wardour would be in her hands: he had done more for
her than any but her father; and, when that day was come, he should not
find her fail him!

She was then on her way to the shop. She did not at all relish entering
it, but, as she had a large money-interest in the business; she ought
at least, she said to herself, to pay the place a visit. When she went
in, Turnbull did not at first recognize her, and, taking her for a
customer, blossomed into repulsive suavity. The change that came over
his countenance, when he knew her, was a shadow of such mingled and
conflicting shades that she felt there was something peculiar in it
which she must attempt to analyze. It remained hardly a moment to
encounter question, but was almost immediately replaced with a
politeness evidently false. Then, first, she began to be aware of
distrusting the man.

Asking a few questions