with the entrance of this
sprightly little lady, the past had all come back, increased his habitual
nervousness a hundredfold. Surely it was not the first time that little
tossing dusky head, with its black sparkling eyes, had presented itself in
his doorway!

She paused a moment on the step, gazed around with a bewildered air, and
shot a startled glance into the honest, eager face of the little man, who
quivered from head to foot as he met her gaze. "That strange feeling
again!" she thought, "I can never have been _here_ before, at any rate!"

Tommy Dudgeon's own confusion prevented his perceiving the momentary
discomposure of his visitor. The next minute, however, she was speaking to
the little man in her cordial, unaffected way.

"You are Mr. Dudgeon, I expect," she said, holding out her neatly-gloved
hand. "How are you, this afternoon? But," she continued after a pause,
"which Mr. Dudgeon is it--the one with a wife, or the one without? My
name," she added in her lively way, "is Owen--Mr. Horn's secretary, you
know. You've heard of me, no doubt, Mr. Dudgeon?"

Tommy Dudgeon had not yet found his tongue.

"But," she broke out again, "I'm not giving you a chance to tell me who
you are. Is it Mr. Dudgeon, or Mr. John? You see I know all about you."

Tommy Dudgeon was in no condition to answer Miss Owen's question, even
yet, simple though it was. If the sight of her had brought back the
past, what thronging memories crowded upon him at the sound of her
voice--wooing, wilful, joyously insistent! But that she was so womanly and
ladylike, and that he knew she was "only the sec'tary," he would have been
ready to advance upon her with outstretched hands, and ask her if she had
quite forgotten Tommy Dudgeon--her old friend, Tommy? As it was, he stood
staring like one bewitched. Miss Owen, wondering at his silence, and his
fixed gaze, repeated her question in another form.

"I don't wish to be rude; but are you the husband, or is it your brother?"

Tommy pulled himself together with a gasp.

"My name is Thomas, miss. It is my brother who is married, and whose wife
is ill."

"Then, Mr. Thomas, I'm glad to make your acquaintance. How is your
brother's wife to-day? I've brought a few little things from Miss Horn,
with her respects."

Miss Owen herself would have said "love," rather than respects. But it was
a great concession on the part of Miss Jemima to send anything at all to
"those Dudgeons," with or without a mes