ize this, it might
bring about a better understanding between them.

His mother detained him. "You're going back to the mills at once? I
wanted to consult you about the rooms. Miss Brent had better be next to
Cicely?"

"I suppose so--yes. I'll see you before I go." He nodded affectionately
and passed on, his hands full of papers, into the Oriental smoking-room,
now dedicated to the unexpected uses of an office and study.

Mrs. Amherst, as she turned away, found the parlour-maid in the act of
opening the front door to the highly-tinted and well-dressed figure of
Mrs. Harry Dressel.

"I'm so delighted to hear that you're expecting Justine," began Mrs.
Dressel as the two ladies passed into the drawing-room.

"Ah, you've heard too?" Mrs. Amherst rejoined, enthroning her visitor in
one of the monumental plush armchairs beneath the threatening weight of
the Bay of Naples.

"I hadn't till this moment; in fact I flew in to ask for news, and on
the door-step there was such a striking-looking young man enquiring for
her, and I heard the parlour-maid say she was arriving tomorrow."

"A young man? Some one you didn't know?" Striking apparitions of the
male sex were of infrequent occurrence at Hanaford, and Mrs. Amherst's
unabated interest in the movement of life caused her to dwell on this
statement.

"Oh, no--I'm sure he was a stranger. Extremely slight and pale, with
remarkable eyes. He was so disappointed--he seemed sure of finding her."

"Well, no doubt he'll come back tomorrow.--You know we're expecting the
whole party," added Mrs. Amherst, to whom the imparting of good news was
always an irresistible temptation.

Mrs. Dressel's interest deepened at once. "Really? Mr. Langhope too?"

"Yes. It's a great pleasure to my son."

"It must be! I'm so glad. I suppose in a way it will be rather sad for
Mr. Langhope--seeing everything here so unchanged----"

Mrs. Amherst straightened herself a little. "I think he will prefer to
find it so," she said, with a barely perceptible change of tone.

"Oh, I don't know. They were never very fond of this house."

There was an added note of authority in Mrs. Dressel's accent. In the
last few months she had been to Europe and had had nervous prostration,
and these incontestable evidences of growing prosperity could not always
be kept out of her voice and bearing. At any rate, they justified her in
thinking that her opinion on almost any subject within the range of
human experience