The first object that met her view was her client
pleading, with conspicuous success, for himself! "I am not
wanted, evidently," thought the old lady. She noiselessly closed
the door again and left the lovers by themselves.
Horace returned, with unwise persistency, to the question of the
deferred marriage. At the first words that he spoke she drew back
directly--sadly, not angrily.
"Don't press me to-day," she said; "I am not well to-day."
He rose and looked at her anxiously. "May l speak about it
to-morrow?"
"Yes, to-morrow." She returned to the sofa, and changed the
subject. "What a time Lady Janet is away!" she said. "What can be
keeping her so long?"
Horace did his best to appear interested in the question of Lady
Janet's prolonged absence. "What made her leave you?" he asked,
standing at the back of the sofa and leaning over her.
"She went into the library to write a note to her nephew.
By-the-by, who is her nephew?"
"Is it possible you don't know?"
"Indeed, I don't."
"You have heard of him, no doubt," said Horace. "Lady Janet's
nephew is a celebrated man." He paused, and stooping nearer to
her, lifted a love-lock that lay over her shoulder and pressed it
to his lips.
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