Miss Dunstable advanced two or three
steps--not into the doorway, as she had done for Mr. Sowerby--put out
her hand, and smiled her sweetest on Mr. Towers, of the _Jupiter_.

"Mr. Towers," she said, "I am delighted to have this opportunity of
seeing you in my own house."

"Miss Dunstable, I am immensely honoured by the privilege of being
here," said he.

"The honour done is all conferred on me," and she bowed and curtsied
with very stately grace. Each thoroughly understood the badinage of
the other; and then, in a few moments, they were engaged in very easy
conversation.

"By the by, Sowerby, what do you think of this threatened
dissolution?" said Tom Towers.

"We are all in the hands of Providence," said Mr. Sowerby, striving
to take the matter without any outward show of emotion. But the
question was one of terrible import to him, and up to this time he
had heard of no such threat. Nor had Mrs. Harold Smith, nor Miss
Dunstable, nor had a hundred others who now either listened to the
vaticinations of Mr. Towers, or to the immediate report made of
them. But it is given to some men to originate such tidings, and the
performance of the prophecy is often brought about by the authority
of the prophet. On the following morning the rumour that there would
be a dissolution was current in all high circles. "They have no
conscience in such matters; no conscience whatever," said a small
god, speaking of the giants--a small god, whose constituency was
expensive. Mr. Towers stood there chatting for about twenty minutes,
and then took his departure without making his way into the room. He
had answered the purpose for which he had been invited, and left Miss
Dunstable in a happy frame of mind.

"I am very glad that he came," said Mrs. Harold Smith, with an air of
triumph.

"Yes, I am glad," said Miss Dunstable, "though I am thoroughly
ashamed that I should be so. After all, what good has he done to me
or to anyone?" And having uttered this moral reflection, she made
her way into the rooms, and soon discovered Dr. Thorne standing by
himself against the wall.

"Well, doctor," she said, "where are Mary and Frank? You do not look
at all comfortable, standing here by yourself."

"I am quite as comfortable as I expected, thank you," said he. "They
are in the room somewhere, and, as I believe, equally happy."

"That's spiteful in you, doctor, to speak in that way. What would you
say if you were called on to endure all that I h