I have ever so much to tell you when you and I have a quiet opportunity, but not now,"--she was speaking in a low tone;--"and now go and ask Agnes how she is."

So he did. She smiled a little languidly, he thought, and was not looking very strong, but prettier than ever--so _very_ pretty! She blushed too, very brilliantly, as he approached; it would have been flattering had he not seen Cleve Verney walking quickly over the green toward the Etherage group. For whom was the blush? Two gentlemen had fired simultaneously.

"Your bird? I rather think _my_ bird?--isn't it?"

Now Tom Sedley did not think the bird his, and he felt, somehow, strangely vexed. And he got through his greeting uncomfortably; his mind was away with Cleve Verney, who was drawing quickly near.

"Oh! Mr. Verney, _what_ a time it is since we saw you last!" exclaimed emphatic Miss Charity; "I really began to think you'd _never_ come."

"Very good of you, Miss Etherage, to think about me."

"And you never gave me your subscription for our poor old women, last winter!"

"Oh! my subscription? I'll give it now--what was it to be--a pound?"

"No, you promised only ten shillings, but it _ought_ to be a pound. I think less would be _shameful_."

"Then, Miss Agnes, shall it be a pound?" he said, turning to her with a laugh--with his fingers in his purse, "whatever you say I'll do."

"_Agnes_--of _course_, a pound," said Charity, in her nursery style of admonition.

"Charity says it must be a pound," answered Agnes.

"And _you_ say so?"

"Of course, I must."

"Then a pound it _is_--and mind," he added, laughing, and turning to Miss Charity with the coin in his fingers, "I'm to figure in your book of benefactors--your golden book of saints, or _martyrs_, rather; but you need not put down my name, only 'The old woman's friend,' or 'A lover of flannel' or 'A promoter of petticoats,' or any other benevolent alias you think becoming."

"'The old woman's friend,' will do very nicely," said Charity, gravely.

"Thank you, Mr. Verney, and we were _so_ glad to hear that your uncle has succeeded at last to the peerage. He can be of such _use_--you really would be--he and you _both_, Mr. Verney--quite amazed and shocked, if you knew how much poverty there is in this town."

"It's well he does not know just now, for he wants all his wits about him. This is a critical occasion, you know, and the town expects great things from a practised orator. I've stolen away, just for five minutes, to ask you the news. We are at Ware, for a few days; only two or three friends with us. They came across in my boat to-day. We are going to set all the tradespeople on earth loose upon the house in a few days. It is to be done in an incredibly short time; and my uncle is talking of getting down some of his old lady relations to act chaperon, and we hope to have you all over there. You know it's all made up, that little coldness between my uncle and your father. I'm so glad. Your father wrote him such a nice note to-day explaining his absence--he never goes into a crowd, he says--and Lord Verney wrote him a line to say, if he would allow him, he would go up to Hazelden to pay his respects this afternoon."

This move was a suggestion of Mr. Larkin's, who was pretty well up in election strategy.

"I've ascertained, my lord, he's good for a hundred and thirty-seven votes in the county, and your lordship has managed him with such consummate tact that a very little more will, with the Divine blessing, induce the happiest, and I may say, considering the disparity of your lordship's relations and his, the most _dutiful_ feelings on his part--resulting, in fact, in your lordship's obtaining the absolute command of the const.i.tuency. You were defeated, my lord, last time, by only forty-three votes, with his influence against you. If your lordship were to start your nephew, Mr. Cleve Verney, for it next time, having made your ground good with him, he would be returned, humanly speaking, by a sweeping majority."

"So, Lord Verney's going up to see papa! Agnes, _we_ ought to be at home. He must have luncheon."

"No--a thousand thanks--but all that's explained. There's luncheon to be in the town-hall--it's part of the programme--and speeches--and all that kind of rubbish; so he can only run up for a few minutes, just to say, 'How do ye do?' and away again. So, pray, don't think of going all that way, and he'll come here to be introduced, and make your acquaintance. And now tell me all your news."

"Well, those odd people went away from Malory"--began Charity.

"Oh, yes, I heard, I think, something of that," said Cleve, intending to change the subject, perhaps; but Miss Charity went on, for in that eventless scene an occurrence of any kind is too precious to be struck out of the record on any ground.

"They went away as mysteriously as they came--almost--and so suddenly"----

"You forgot, Charity, dear, Mr. Verney was at Ware when they went, and here two or three times after they left Malory."

"So I _was_," said Cleve, with an uneasy glance at Tom Sedley; "I _knew_ I had heard something of it."

"Oh, yes; and they say that the old man was both mad and in debt."

"What a combination!" said Cleve.

"Yes, I a.s.sure you, and a Jew came down with twenty or thirty bailiffs--I'm only telling you what Mr. Apjohn heard, and the people here tell us--and a mad doctor, and people with strait waistcoats, and they surrounded Malory; but he was gone!--not a human being knew where--and that handsome girl, wasn't she quite _bee-au-tiful_?"

"Oh, what everyone says, you know, _must_ be true," said Cleve.

"What do _you_ say?" she urged upon Tom Sedley.

"Oh, I say ditto to everyone, of course."

"Well, I should think so, for you know you are quite desperately in love with her," said Miss Charity.

"_I?_ Why, I really never spoke to her in all my life. Now, if you had said Cleve Verney."

"Oh, yes! If you had named _me_. But, by Jove! there they go. Do you see? My uncle and the mayor, and all the lesser people, trooping away to the town-hall. Good-bye! I haven't another moment. You'll be here, I _hope_, when we get out; _do, pray_. I have not a moment."

And he meant a glance for Miss Agnes, but it lost itself in air, for that young lady was looking down, in a little reverie, on the gra.s.s, at the tip of her tiny boot.

"_There's_ old Miss Christian _out_, I _declare_!" exclaimed Charity.

"Did you ever _hear_ of such a thing? I _wonder_ whether Doctor Lyster knows she is out to-day. I'll just go and speak to her. If he doesn't, I'll simply tell her she is _mad_!"

And away marched Miss Charity, bent upon finding out, as she said, all about it.

"Agnes," said Tom Sedley, "it seemed to me to-day, you were not glad to see me. Are you vexed with me?"

"Vexed? No, indeed!" she said, gently, and looking up with a smile.

"And your sister said----" Tom paused, for he did not know whether Charity's whisper about her not having been "very strong" might not be a confidence.

"_What_ does Charity say?" asked Agnes, almost sharply, while a little flush appeared in her cheeks.

"Well, she said she did not think you were so strong as usual. That was all."

"That was _all_--no great consequence," said she, with a little smile upon the gra.s.s and sea-pinks--a smile that was bitter.

"You can't think I meant that, little Agnes, _I_ of all people; but I never was good at talking. And you _know_ I did not mean that."

"People often say--_I_ do, I know--what they mean without intending it,"

she answered, carelessly. "I _know_ you would not make a rude speech--I'm sure of that; and as to what we say accidentally, can it signify very much? Mr. Verney said he was coming back after the speeches, and Lord Verney, he said, didn't he? I wonder you don't look in at the town-hall. You could make us laugh by telling all about it, by-and-by--that is, if we happen to see you again."

"Of _course_ you should see me again."

"I meant this evening; to-morrow, perhaps, we should," said she.

"If I went there; but I'm not going. I think that old fellow, Lord Verney, Cleve's uncle, is an impertinent old m.u.f.f. Every one knows he's a m.u.f.f, though he _is_ Cleve's uncle; he gave me just one finger to-day, and looked at me as if I ought to be anywhere but where I was. I have as good a right as _he_ to be in Cardyllian, and I venture to say the people like me a great deal better than they like him, or ever will."