nue to call her, "Mademoiselle," since her return; and she on her
part had appeared to acquiesce with a sort of scornful nonchalance, in
the tacit understanding that she and her former pupil should see and hear
as little as might be of one another.

Meanwhile poor Willett, with her good-natured honesty and her
inexhaustible gossip, endeavored to amuse and reassure her young
mistress, and sometimes even with some partial success.

We must now follow Mr. Marston in his solitary expedition to Chester.
When he took his place in the stagecoach he had the whole interior of the
vehicle to himself, and thus continued to be its solitary occupant for
several miles. The coach, however, was eventually hailed, brought to, and
the door being opened, Dr. Danvers got in, and took his place opposite to
the passenger already established there. The worthy man was so busied in
directing the disposition of his luggage from the window, and in
arranging the sundry small parcels with which he was charged, that he
did not recognize his companion until they were in motion. When he did so
it was with no very pleasurable feeling; and it is probable that Marston,
too, would have gladly escaped the coincidence which thus reduced them
once more to the temporary necessity of a Tate-a-Tate. Embarrassing as
each felt the situation to be, there was, however, no avoiding it, and,
after a recognition and a few forced attempts at conversation, they
became, by mutual consent, silent and uncommunicative.

The journey, though in point of space a mere trifle, was, in those
slowcoach days, a matter of fully five hours' duration; and before it was
completed the sun had set, and darkness began to close. Whether it was
that the descending twilight dispelled the painful constraint under which
Marston had seemed to labor, or that some more purely spiritual and
genial influence had gradually dissipated the repulsion and distrust with
which, at first, he had shrunk from a renewal of intercourse with Dr.
Danvers, he suddenly accosted him thus.

"Dr. Danvers, I have been fifty times on the point of speaking to
you--confidentially of course--while sitting here opposite to you, what I
believe I could scarcely bring myself to hint to any other man living;
yet I must tell it, and soon, too, or I fear it will have told itself."

Dr. Danvers intimated his readiness to hear and advise, if desired; and
Marston resumed abruptly, after a pause--

"Pray, Doctor Danvers, have y