e girl had a right to sell her ideas,
and perhaps the woman thought they were her own when she had paid for
them. There could be that view of it all. The furtive nature of Miss
Shirley's presence in the house might very well be a condition of that
grand event she was preparing. It was all very mysterious.

XVII.

It rained throughout the evening, with a wailing of the wind in the
gables, and a weeping and a sobbing of the water from the eaves that
Mrs. Westangle's guests, securely housed from the storm, made the most
of for weirdness. There had been a little dancing, which gave way to
so much sitting-out that the volunteer music abruptly ceased as if in
dudgeon, and there was nothing left but weirdness to bring young hearts
together. Weirdness can do a good deal with girls lounging in low
chairs, and young men on rugs round a glowing hearth at their feet; and
every one told some strange thing that had happened at first hand, or
second or third hand, either to himself or herself, or to their fathers
or brothers or grandmothers or old servants. They were stimulated
in eking out these experiences not only by the wildness of the rain
without, but by the mystery of being shut off from the library into the
drawing-room and hall while the preparations for the following night
were beginning. But weirdness is not inexhaustible, even when shared on
such propitious terms between a group of young people rapidly advanced
in intimacy by a week's stay under the same roof, and at the first yawn
a gay dispersion of the votaries ended it all.

The yawn came from Bushwick, who boldly owned, when his guilt was
brought home to him, that he was sleepy, and then as he expected to be
scared out of a year's growth the next night, and not be able to sleep
for a week afterwards, he was now going to bed. He shook hands with Mrs.
Westangle for good-night. The latest to follow him was Verrian, who,
strangely alert, and as far from drowsiness as he had ever known
himself, was yet more roused by realizing that Mrs. Westangle was not
letting his hand go at once, but, unless it was mere absent-mindedness,
was conveying through it the wish to keep him. She fluttered a little
more closely up to him, and twittered out, "Miss Shirley wants me to
let you know that she has told me about your coming together, and
everything."

"Oh, I'm very glad," Verrian said, not sure that it was the right thing.

"I don't know why she feels so, but she has a righ