ame of the housekeeper species. On learning his
business, she began to conduct him through the rooms, which were in
habitable state, though with furniture muffled.

"The next room, sir, is the library. A lady is there at present.
Perhaps you know her?--Mrs. Wade."

"Mrs. Wade! Yes, I know her slightly."

The coincidence amused him.

"She comes here to study, sir--being a friend of the family. Will you
go in?"

Foreseeing a lively dialogue, he released his attendant till she should
hear his voice again, and, with preface of a discreet knock, entered
the room. An agreeable warmth met him, and the aspect of the interior
contrasted cheerfully with that of the chambers into which he had
looked. There was no great collection of books, but some fine
engravings filled the vacancies around. At the smaller of two
writing-tables sat the person he was prepared to discover; she had
several volumes open before her, and appeared to be making notes. At
his entrance she turned and gazed at him fixedly.

"Forgive my intrusion, Mrs. Wade," Denzil began, in a genial voice. "I
have come to look over the house, and was just told that you were here.
As we are not absolute strangers"----

He had never met her in the social way, though she had been a resident
at Polterham for some six years. Through Mrs. Liversedge, her repute
had long ago reached him; she was universally considered eccentric,
and, by many people, hardly proper for an acquaintance. On her first
arrival in the town she wore the garb of recent widowhood; relatives
here she had none, but an old friendship existed between her and the
occupants of this house, a childless couple named Hornibrook. Her age
was now about thirty.

Quarrier was far from regarding her as an attractive woman. He thought
better of her intelligence than before hearing her speak, and it was
not difficult for him to imagine that the rumour of Polterham went much
astray when it concerned itself with her characteristics; but the face
now directed to him had no power whatever over his sensibilities. It
might be that of a high-spirited and large-brained woman; beautiful it
could not be called. There was something amiss with the eyes. All the
other features might pass: they were neither plain nor comely: a
forehead of good type, a very ordinary nose, largish lips, chin
suggesting the masculine; but the eyes, to begin with, were prominent,
and they glistened in a way which made it very difficult to determin