nd yet of guilt, that this timid inquirer set forth on her
mission, exchanging a sympathetic significant look with Miss Wentworth
before she went out. If she should meet Frank at the door, looking
dignified and virtuous, what could she possibly say to him? and yet,
perhaps, he had only been imprudent, and did not mean anything. Miss
Dora looked round her on both sides, up and down Grange Lane, as she
went out into the lovely summer morning. Neither Frank nor any other
soul, except some nurse-maids, was to be seen along the whole line of
sunny road. She was relieved, yet she was disappointed at the same
time, and went slowly up towards Elsworthy's shop, saying to herself
that she was sure Frank could not mean anything. It must have been
that forward little thing herself who had come up to him when he was
out for his walk, or it must have been an accident. But then she
remembered that she had heard the Curate call Rosa pretty; and Miss
Dora wondered within herself what it mattered whether she was pretty
or not, and what he had to do with it, and shook her head over the
strange way men had of finding out such things. For her own part, she
was sure she never looked whether the girl was pretty or not; and the
anxious aunt had just come round again, by a very circuitous and
perplexing course, to her original sentiment, and strengthened herself
in the thought that her dear Frank could not mean anything, when she
reached Elsworthy's door.

That worthy trader was himself behind the counter, managing matters
with his usual exactness. Berlin wool was one of the articles Mr
Elsworthy dealt in, besides newspapers, and books when they were
ordered. Miss Dora, who wore no crinoline, stumbled over her dress in
her agitation as she went in, and saw, at the first glance, little
Rosa, looking very blooming and pretty, tying up a parcel at the other
end of the shop. The poor lady did not know how to enter upon so
difficult a question. She offered her wool humbly to be matched, and
listened to Mr Elsworthy's sentiments on the subject. He told her how
he always had his wools from the best houses in London, and could
match anything as was ever made in that line, and was proud to say as
he always gave satisfaction. Miss Dora could not see any opening for
the inquiries she hoped to make; for how was it possible to intimate
the possibility of disapproval to an establishment so perfect in all
its arrangements? The probabilities are, that she woul