is offer of marriage; and
during her talk with Bessy she had suddenly, and, as it seemed to her,
irrevocably, decided that the answer should be favourable. From the
first days of her acquaintance with Wyant she had appreciated his
intelligence and had been stimulated by his zeal for his work. He had
remained only six months at Saint Elizabeth's, and though his feeling
for her had even then been manifest, it had been kept from expression by
the restraint of their professional relation, and by her absorption in
her duties. It was only when they had met again at Lynbrook that she had
begun to feel a personal interest in him. His youthful promise seemed
nearer fulfillment than she had once thought possible, and the contrast
he presented to the young men in Bessy's train was really all in his
favour. He had gained in strength and steadiness without losing his high
flashes of enthusiasm; and though, even now, she was not in love with
him, she began to feel that the union of their common interests might
create a life full and useful enough to preclude the possibility of
vague repinings. It would, at any rate, take her out of the stagnant
circle of her present existence, and restore her to contact with the
fruitful energies of life.

All this had seemed quite clear when she wrote her letter; why, then,
had she not made use of their chance encounter to give her answer,
instead of capriciously postponing it? The act might have been that of a
self-conscious girl in her teens; but neither inexperience nor coquetry
had prompted it. She had merely yielded to the spirit of resistance that
Wyant's presence had of late aroused in her; and the possibility that
this resistance might be due to some sense of his social defects, his
lack of measure and facility, was so humiliating that for a moment she
stood still in the path, half-meaning to turn back and overtake him----

As she paused she was surprised to hear a man's step behind her; and the
thought that it might be Wyant's brought about another revulsion of
feeling. What right had he to pursue her in this way, to dog her steps
even into the Lynbrook grounds? She was sure that his persistent
attentions had already attracted the notice of Bessy's visitors; and
that he should thus force himself on her after her dismissal seemed
suddenly to make their whole relation ridiculous.

She turned about to rebuke him, and found herself face to face with John
Amherst.

XVI

AMHERST, on