Elizabeth thought a minute, and recollected that some person
answering the above not too flattering description had called, but
refused to leave his name, saying he did not know the ladies, but was
a particular friend of Mr. Leaf's.

Ascott laughed. "So he is--a very particular friend; but my aunts
would not fancy him, and I don't want him to come here. Say, if he
calls, that I'm gone out of town."

"Very well, sir. Shall you start before dinner?" said Elizabeth,
whose practical mind immediately recurred to that meal, and to the
joint, always contrived to be hot on the days that Ascott dined at
home.

He seemed excessively tickled. "Bless you, you are the greatest
innocent! Just say what I tell you, and never mind--hush! here's Aunt
Hilary."

And Miss Hilary's anxious face, white with long wakefulness, had put
out of Elizabeth's head the answer that was coming; indeed the matter
slipped from her mind altogether, in consequence of another
circumstance which gave her much more perplexity.

During her young mistress's absence, supposing Miss Selina out too,
and Miss Leaf up stairs, she had come suddenly into the parlor
without knocking. There, to her amazement, she saw Miss Selina and
Mr. Ascott standing, in close conversation, over the fire. They were
so engrossed that they did not notice her, and she shut door again
immediately. But what confounded her was, that she was certain,