ecomes transmuted to irony among the same order in town. But the fixed
and dogged fidelity to one another under apparent coolness, by which this
family was distinguished, remained unshaken in these members as in all
the rest, leading them to select the children as companions in their
holiday in preference to casual acquaintance. At last they were ready,
and departed, and Ethelberta, after chatting with her mother awhile,
proceeded to her personal duties.

The house was very silent that day, Gwendoline and Joey being the only
ones left below stairs. Ethelberta was wishing that she had thrown off
her state and gone to Kew to have an hour of childhood over again in a
romp with the others, when she was startled by the announcement of a male
visitor--none other than Mr. Neigh.

Ethelberta's attitude on receipt of this information sufficiently
expressed a revived sense that the incidence of Mr. Neigh on her path
might have a meaning after all. Neigh had certainly said he was going to
marry her, and now here he was come to her house--just as if he meant to
do it forthwith. She had mentally discarded him; yet she felt a shock
which was scarcely painful, and a dread which was almost exhilarating.
Her flying visit to Farnfield she thought little of at this moment. From
the fact that the mind prefers imaginings to recapitulation, conjecture
to history, Ethelberta had dwelt more upon Neigh's possible plans and
anticipations than upon the incidents of her evening journey; and the
former assumed a more distinct shape in her mind's eye than anything on
the visible side of the curtain.

Neigh was perhaps not quite so placidly nonchalant as in ordinary; still,
he was by far the most trying visitor that Ethelberta had lately faced,
and she could not get above the stage--not a very high one for the
mistress of a house--of feeling her personality to be inconveniently in
the way of his eyes. He had somewhat the bearing of a man who was going
to do without any fuss what gushing people would call a philanthropic
action.

'I have been intending to write a line to you,' said Neigh; 'but I felt
that I could not be sure of writing my meaning in a way which might
please you. I am not bright at a letter--never was. The question I mean
is one that I hope you will be disposed to answer favourably, even though
I may show the awkwardness of a fellow-person who has never put such a
question before. Will you give me a word of encouragement--