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“‘I hope he was grateful to his poor sisters,’ I said.

“‘One naturally thinks that he must have been so, but Smith’s remark was very just. He said, “I fancy he was both penitent and grateful as far as he was able, but I believe he had been too long accustomed to their unqualified self-sacrifice to feel it very sensitively!” And I believe he is right. Such men not seldom reform in conduct if they live long enough, but few eyes that have been blinded by years of selfishness are opened to see clearly in this world.’

“‘It ought to make one very tender with the good ladies’ little weaknesses,’ I said, self-reproachfully; and I walked home in a more peaceful state of mind. I forgave poor Miss Martha; also I was secretly satisfied that my father had found the merchant’s conversation attractive. It seemed to give me some excuse for my breach of Miss Peckham’s golden rule. Moreover, little troubles and offences which seemed mountains at Bellevue Cottage were apt to dwindle into very surmountable molehills with my larger-minded parents. I was comparatively at ease again. My father had evidently seen nothing unusual in my conduct, so I hoped that it had not been conspicuous. Possibly I might never meet Mr. Smith any more. I rather hoped not. Life is long, and the world wide, and it is sometimes possible to lose sight of people with whom one has disagreeable associations. And then it was a wholesome lesson for the future.

“‘And what was the old gentleman like?’ was Fatima’s first question, when I came upstairs. I had just been talking of Mr. Brooke, and no other old gentleman occurred to my memory at that moment.

“‘What old gentleman?’ I asked dreamily.

“‘Miss Martha’s old gentleman, the merchant–wasn’t he there, after all?’

“I blushed at my stupidity, and at a certain feeling of guiltiness in connection with the person alluded to.

“‘Oh, yes, he was there,’ I answered; ‘but he is not an old gentleman.’

“‘What is he, then?’ Fatima asked, curiously.

“It is undoubtedly a luxury to be the bearer of a piece of startling intelligence, and it is well not to spoil the enjoyment of it by over haste. I finished unsnapping my necklace, and said, very deliberately–

“‘He is one of the little Russians.’

“Fatima’s wit jumped more quickly than mine had done. It was she who added–

“‘Then he is Ivan.’

* * * * *

“My hopes in reference to Mr. Smith were disappointed. I had not seen the last of him. My mother was at this time from home, and I was housekeeper in her absence. It was on the morning following the Bellevue tea-party that my father said to me–

“‘Mr. Smith is coming up to refer to a book of mine to-day, my dear; and I asked him to stay to dinner. I suppose it will be convenient?’

“I said, ‘Certainly, sir.’

“I could plead no domestic inconvenience; but I thought that Mr. Smith might have gone quietly back to London by the early coach, and spared me the agitation which the prospect of seeing him again undoubtedly excited. He came, however. It was the first visit, but by no means the last; and he lingered in the town, greatly to my father’s satisfaction (who had taken a strong fancy for him), but not, apparently, to that of the Misses Brooke.

“As I afterwards found the clue to the somewhat strange conduct of our old friends at this time, I may as well briefly state how it was.

“When the merchant first announced to them his proposed business visit to the town, and his intention of calling on them, the good ladies (in their affection for me, and having a high opinion of him) planned a kindly little romance of which he and I were to be the hero and heroine, and which was to end in our happy marriage. With this view they arranged for our meeting at the tea-party, and avoided all mention of each to the other, that we might meet in the (so to speak) incidental way characteristic of real love stories. With that suspiciousness of people in general, and of young people in particular, which haunted Miss Martha, she attributed my ready acceptance of the invitation to my having heard of Mr. Smith’s arrival, and to the unusual attraction of an eligible gentleman at the tea-party. Little did she guess the benevolent plans which on my part I had formed for her, and which the merchant’s youthful appearance had dashed to the ground.