o make the long-sought discovery, and that he
had in his own hand the clue to the strangest of romances.

One evening as he sat by the fire, with a plan in his hands and a litter
of Martin's papers lying on a table at his side, there was a tap at the
door, and Miss Joliffe entered. They were still close friends in spite
of his leaving Bellevue Lodge. However sorry she had been at the time
to lose her lodger, she recognised that the course he had taken was
correct, and, indeed, obligatory. She was glad that he had seen his
duty in this matter; it would have been quite impossible for any man of
ordinary human feelings, to continue to live on in the same house under
such circumstances. To have made a bid for Anstice's hand, and to have
been refused, was a blow that moved her deepest pity, and she
endeavoured in many ways to show her consideration for the victim.
Providence had no doubt overruled everything for the best in ordaining
that Anstice should refuse Mr Westray, but Miss Joliffe had favoured
his suit, and had been sorry at the time that it was not successful. So
there existed between them that curious sympathy, which generally exists
between a rejected lover and a woman who has done her best to further
his proposal. They had since met not unfrequently, and the year which
had elapsed had sufficiently blunted the edge of Westray's
disappointment, to enable him to talk of the matter with equanimity. He
took a sad pleasure in discussing with Miss Joliffe the motives which
might have conduced to so inexplicable a refusal, and in considering
whether his offer would have been accepted if it had been made a little
sooner or in another manner. Nor was the subject in any way distasteful
to her, for she felt a reflected glory in the fact of her niece having
first refused a thoroughly eligible proposal, and having afterwards
accepted one transcendently better.

"Forgive me, sir--forgive me, Mr Westray," she corrected herself,
remembering that their relation was no longer one of landlady and
lodger. "I am sorry to intrude on you so late, but it is difficult to
find you in during the day. There is a matter that has been weighing
lately on my mind. You have never taken away the picture of the
flowers, which you and dear Mr Sharnall purchased of me. I have not
hurried in the matter, feeling I should like to see you nicely settled
in before it was moved, but now it is time all was set right, so I have
brought it over t