ut it." Then
there was an interval of another ten minutes, and even Dorothy was
beginning to think that Mr. Burgess was not coming. "I've given him
up now," said Miss Stanbury. "I think I'll send and put them all
off." Just at that moment there came a knock at the door. But there
was no cab. Dorothy's conjecture had been right. The London gentleman
had walked, and his portmanteau had been carried behind him by a boy.
"How did he get here?" exclaimed Miss Stanbury, as she heard the
strange voice speaking to Martha down-stairs. But Dorothy knew better
than to answer the question.

"Miss Stanbury, I am very glad to see you," said Mr. Brooke Burgess,
as he entered the room. Miss Stanbury courtesied, and then took
him by both hands. "You wouldn't have known me, I dare say," he
continued. "A black beard and a bald head do make a difference."

"You are not bald at all," said Miss Stanbury.

"I am beginning to be thin enough at the top. I am so glad to come to
you, and so much obliged to you for having me! How well I remember
the old room!"

"This is my niece, Miss Dorothy Stanbury, from Nuncombe Putney."
Dorothy was about to make some formal acknowledgment of the
introduction, when Brooke Burgess came up to her, and shook her hand
heartily. "She lives with me," continued the aunt.

"And what has become of Hugh?" said Brooke.

"We never talk of him," said Miss Stanbury gravely.

"I hope there's nothing wrong? I hear of him very often in London."

"My aunt and he don't agree;--that's all," said Dorothy.

"He has given up his profession as a barrister,--in which he might
have lived like a gentleman," said Miss Stanbury, "and has taken to
writing for a--penny newspaper."

"Everybody does that now, Miss Stanbury."

"I hope you don't, Mr. Burgess."

"I! Nobody would print anything that I wrote. I don't write for
anything, certainly."

"I'm very glad to hear it," said Miss Stanbury.

Brooke Burgess, or Mr. Brooke, as he came to be called very shortly
by the servants in the house, was a good-looking man, with black
whiskers and black hair, which, as he said, was beginning to be thin
on the top of his head, and pleasant small bright eyes. Dorothy
thought that next to her brother Hugh he was the most good-natured
looking man she had ever seen. He was rather below the middle height,
and somewhat inclined to be stout. But he would boast that he could
still walk his twelve miles in three hours, and would add that as
long