is was over, and Mr. Holden had kindly suggested the idea of
sending various stuffs to the College, "that they might judge of the
effect," the party went home, slightly subdued. The air was heavy and
yellow, and prophesied snow; but a very red wintry sun had managed to
make an opening temporarily in the clouds, and threw a ruddy ray down
Grange Lane, bringing out the few passengers who were coming and going
under the old garden walls. Ursula clasped her hands together, and came
to a stop suddenly, when she turned her eyes that way.

"Oh!" she said, "here she is--she is coming! all by herself, and we
can't help meeting her--the young lady in black!"

"Shall we speak to her?" said Janey with a little awe.

"Who is the young lady in black?" said Reginald, "this girl who is
coming up? I never saw her before in Carlingford. Is she some one you
have met with the Dorsets? She don't look much like Grange Lane."

"Oh, hush! here she is," said Ursula, losing all that importance of
aspect which her position as leader of the expedition had given her. A
pretty blush of expectation came over her face--her dimples revealed
themselves as if by magic. You will think it strange, perhaps, that the
sight of one girl should produce this effect upon another. But then
Phoebe represented to Ursula the only glimpse she had ever had into a
world which looked gay and splendid to the country girl--a world in
which Phoebe had appeared to her as a princess reigning in glory and
delight. Ursula forgot both her companions and her recent occupation.
Would the young lady in black notice her; stop, perhaps, and talk to
her--remember her? Her eyes began to glow and dance with excitement. She
stumbled as she went on in her anxiety, fixing her eyes upon the
approaching figure. Phoebe, for her part, was taking a constitutional
walk up and down Grange Lane, and she too was a little moved,
recognizing the girl, and wondering what it would be wisest to
do--whether to speak to her, and break her lonely promenade with a
little society, or remember her "place," and save herself from further
mortification by passing the clergyman's daughter, who was a cousin of
the Dorsets, with a bow.

"The Dorsets wouldn't recognise me, nor Miss May either," Phoebe said to
herself, "_if they knew_--"

But Ursula looked so wistful as they approached each other that she had
not the courage to keep to this wise resolution. Though she was only the
granddaughter of Tozer, the bu