efore me. I did not dream that down
in that moon-lighted valley I should be almost rich; that I could offer
you--"

"And may I ask," she interrupted, "if you have been talking about me to
Miss Rose?"

"Not a word of it," he answered warmly. "I never mentioned your name,
nor referred to you in any way."

She could not help ejaculating a little sarcastically:

"How circumspect!"

"And now," he said, coming closer to her, "will you not give me an
answer? I love you, and I cannot wait. And oh! speak quickly, for here
comes Mrs. Petter straight towards us."

"I do not like Lethbury," said Mrs. Cristie.

Lodloe could have stamped his feet, in the fire of his impatience.

"But of me, of myself," he said. "And oh! speak quickly, she is almost
here."

"Please cease," said Mrs. Cristie; "she will hear you."

Mrs. Petter came up panting.

"I don't want to interrupt you, Mrs. Cristie," she said, "but really and
truly you ought to go to your baby. He has stopped crying in the most
startling and suspicious way. Of course I don't know what she has done
to him, and whether it's anything surgical or laudanum. And it isn't for
me to be there to smell the little creature's breath; but you ought to
go this minute, and if you find there is anything needed in the way of
mustard, or hot water, or sending for the doctor, just call to me from
the top of the stairs."

"My dear Mrs. Petter," said Mrs. Cristie, "why didn't Calthea Rose come
and tell me this herself, instead of sending you?"

"She said that she thought you would take it better from me than from
her; and after we had made up our minds about it, she said I ought not
to wait a second."

"Well," said Mrs. Cristie, "it was very good in you to come to me, but I
do not feel in the least alarmed. It was Ida's business to quiet the
child, and I have no doubt she did it without knives or poison. But now
that you are here, Mrs. Petter, I wish to ask your opinion about
something that Mr. Lodloe has been talking of to me."

The young man looked at her in astonishment.

"He has been telling me," continued Mrs. Cristie, "of a gentleman he
knows, a person of education, and accustomed to society, who had
conceived the idea of living in Lethbury. Now what do you think of
that?"

"Well," said Mrs. Petter, "if he's married, and if his wife's got the
asthma, or he's got it himself, I have heard that Lethbury is good for
that sort of complaint. Or if he's failed in business and ha