\"no! certainly not. do you?\"

\"not i. but i thought, perhaps, you might. is he a great deal here?\"

\"i fancy he is when he is in town. he has been on circuit now since icame. but--mr. bell--hāve you e from oxford or from milton?\"

\"from milton. don\"t you see i\"m smoke-dried?\"

\"certainly. but i thought that it might be the effect of the antiquities ofoxford.\"

\"e now, be a sensible woman! in oxford, i could hāve managed allthe landlords in the place, and had my own way, with half the troubleyour milton landlord has given me, and defeated me after all. he won\"ttake the house off our hands till next june twelvemonth. luckily, mr.

thornton found a tenant for it. why don\"t you ask after mr. thornton,margaret? he has proved himself a very active friend of yours, i can tellyou. taken more than half the trouble off my hands.\"

\"and how is he? how is mrs. thornton?\" asked margaret hurriedly andbelow her breath, though she tried to speak out.

\"i suppose they\"re well. i\"ve been staying at their house till i was drivenout of it by the perpetual clack about that thornton girl\"s marriage. itwas too much for thornton himself, though she was his sister. he usedto go and sit in his own room perpetually. he\"s getting past the age forcaring for such things, either as principal or accessory. i was surprisedto find the old lady falling into the current, and carried away by herdaughter\"s enthusiasm for orange-blossoms and lace. i thought mrs.

thornton had been made of sterner stuff.\"

\"she would put on any assumption of feeling to veil her daughter\"sweakness,\" said margaret in a low voice.

\"perhaps so. you\"ve studied her, hāve you? she doesn\"t seem over fondof you, margaret.\"

\"i know it,\" said margaret. \"oh, here is tea at last!\" exclaimed she, as ifrelieved. and with tea came mr. henry lennox, who had walked up toharley street after a late dinner, and had evidently expected to find hisbrother and sister-in-law at home. margaret suspected him of being asthankful as she was at the presence of a third party, on this their firstmeeting since the memorable day of his offer, and her refusal athelstone. she could hardly tell what to say at first, and was thankful forall the tea-table occupations, which gāve her an excuse for keepingsilence, and him an opportunity of recovering himself. for, to tell thetruth, he had rather forced himself up to harley street this evening, witha view of getting over an awkward meeting, awkward even in thepresence of captain lennox and edith, and doubly awkward now thathe found her the only lady there, and the person to whom he must

naturally and perforce address a great part of his conversation. she wasthe first to recover her self-possession. she began to talk on the subjectwhich came uppermost in her mind, after the first flush of awkwardshyness.

\"mr. lennox, i hāve been so much obliged to you for all you hāve doneabout frederick.\"

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