had it up here; and she said--; but laws, Mr. Graham, you
don't care what a young lady says to an old woman like me. You'll see
her yourself this evening, and then you can tell her whether or no
the sea-kale was worth the eating! It's not so badly biled, I will
say that for Hannah Cook, though she is rampagious sometimes." He
longed to ask her what words Madeline had used, even in speaking on
such a subject as this; but he did not dare to do so. Mrs. Baker was
very fond of talking about Miss Madeline, but Graham was by no means
assured that he should find an ally in Mrs. Baker if he told her all
the truth.

At last the hour arrived, and Augustus came to convoy him down to
the drawing-room. It was now many days since he had been out of that
room, and the very fact of moving was an excitement to him. He hardly
knew how he might feel in walking down stairs, and could not quite
separate the nervousness arising from his shattered bones from that
other nervousness which came from his--shattered heart. The word is
undoubtedly a little too strong, but as it is there, there let it
stay. When he reached the drawing-room, he almost felt that he had
better decline to enter it. The door however was opened, and he was
in the room before he could make up his mind to any such step, and
he found himself being walked across the floor to some especial seat,
while a dozen kindly anxious faces were crowding round him.

"Here's an arm-chair, Mr. Graham, kept expressly for you, near the
fire," said Lady Staveley. "And I am extremely glad to see you well
enough to fill it."

"Welcome out of your room, sir," said the judge. "I compliment you,
and Pottinger also, upon your quick recovery; but allow me to tell
you that you don't yet look a man fit to rough it alone in London."

"I feel very well, sir," said Graham.

And then Mrs. Arbuthnot greeted him, and Miss Furnival, and four or
five others who were of the party, and he was introduced to one or
two whom he had not seen before. Marian too came up to him,--very
gently, as though he were as brittle as glass, having been warned by
her mother. "Oh, Mr. Felix," she said, "I was so unhappy when your
bones were broken. I do hope they won't break again."

And then he perceived that Madeline was in the room and was coming
up to him. She had in truth not been there when he first entered,
having thought it better, as a matter of strategy, to follow upon his
footsteps. He was getting up to meet her