o say
so as I answered in the negative.

'You have been here nearly a week; they might have risked a call by this
time,' he returned, knitting his brows as though something perplexed him;
but I broke in on his reflections rather impatiently.

'I declare, Max, you have quite piqued my curiosity about these people;
some mystery seems to attach to Gladwyn. I shall expect to see something
very wonderful.'

'Then you will be disappointed,' he returned quietly, not a bit offended
by my petulance. 'I cannot help wishing you to make acquaintance with
them, as they are such intimate friends of mine, and I think it will be a
mutual benefit.'

Then, as I made no reply to this, he went on, still more mildly:

'I confess I should like your opinion of them. I have a great reliance in
your intuition and common sense; and you are so deliciously frank and
outspoken, Ursula, that I shall soon know what you think. Well, I must
not stay gossiping here. Your company is very charming, my dear, but I
have letters to write before bedtime. You will see our friends in church
on Sunday. I hear Miss Elizabeth comes home to-morrow; she is the lively
one,--not quite of the Merry Pecksniff order, but still a bright, chatty
lady.

"From morning till night
It is Betty's delight
To chatter and talk without stopping."

'You know the rest, Ursula, my dear. By the bye,' opening the door, and
looking cautiously into the passage, 'I wonder whom the Bartons are
entertaining in the kitchen to-night? I hear a masculine voice.'

'It is only Mr. Hamilton,' I returned indifferently. 'I heard him come
in half an hour ago; he is giving Nathaniel a lesson in mathematics.'

'To be sure. What a good fellow he is!' in an enthusiastic tone. 'Well,
good-night, child: do not sit up late.' And he vanished.

I am afraid I disregarded this injunction, for I wanted to write to my
poor Jill--who was never absent from my mind--and Lesbia; and I was loath
to leave the fireside, and too much excited for sleep.

When I had finished my letters I still sat on gazing into the bright
caverns of coal, and thinking over Susan Locke's history.

'How many good people there are in the world!' I said, half aloud; but I
almost jumped out of my chair at the sound of a deep, angry voice on the
other side of the door.

'It is a thriftless, wasteful sort of thing burning the candle at both
ends. Women have very little common sense, after all.'

I extinguished the lamp hastily, f