in confuting Alban to notice it.

He was quite willing to be confuted. Even when she lost her temper,
she was still interesting to him. "I don't expect you to think me
infallible," he said. "Perhaps you will remember that I have had some
experience. I am unfortunately older than you are."

"Oh if wisdom comes with age," she smartly reminded him, "your friend
Miss Redwood is old enough to be your mother--and she suspected Mrs.
Rook of murder, because the poor woman looked at a door, and disliked
being in the next room to a fidgety old maid."

Alban's manner changed: he shrank from that chance allusion to doubts
and fears which he dare not acknowledge. "Let us talk of something
else," he said.

She looked at him with a saucy smile. "Have I driven you into a corner
at last? And is _that_ your way of getting out of it?"

Even his endurance failed. "Are you trying to provoke me?" he asked.
"Are you no better than other women? I wouldn't have believed it of you,
Emily."

"Emily?" She repeated the name in a tone of surprise, which reminded
him that he had addressed her with familiarity at a most inappropriate
time--the time when they were on the point of a quarrel. He felt the
implied reproach too keenly to be able to answer her with composure.

"I think of Emily--I love Emily--my one hope is that Emily may love me.
Oh, my dear, is there no excuse if I forget to call you 'Miss' when you
distress me?"

All that was tender and true in her nature secretly took his part. She
would have followed that better impulse, if he had only been calm enough
to understand her momentary silence, and to give her time. But the
temper of a gentle and generous man, once roused, is slow to subside.
Alban abruptly left his chair. "I had better go!" he said.

"As you please," she answered. "Whether you go, Mr. Morris, or whether
you stay, I shall write to Mrs. Rook."

The ring at the bell was followed by the appearance of a visitor. Doctor
Allday opened the door, just in time to hear Emily's last words. Her
vehemence seemed to amuse him.

"Who is Mrs. Rook?" he asked.

"A most respectable person," Emily answered indignantly; "housekeeper to
Sir Jervis Redwood. You needn't sneer at her, Doctor Allday! She has not
always been in service--she was landlady of the inn at Zeeland."

The doctor, about to put his hat on a chair, paused. The inn at Zeeland
reminded him of the Handbill, and of the visit of Miss Jethro.

"Why are you so hot ov