stood on the threshold looking at him. I think I was the only person
who saw her face at that moment. It was so sudden a look that came
upon it, a look half terror, half pain, and it passed away so
quickly, that I had scarcely time to distinguish the expression
before it was gone; but it was a look that brought back to my memory
the almost forgotten scene in the little study at Cumber Priory, and
set me wondering what it could be that made the sight of Angus
Egerton, either on canvas or in the flesh, a cause of agitation to
Milly's stepmother.

In the next moment Mr. Darrell was presenting his visitor to his
wife; and as the two acknowledged the introduction, I stole a glance
at Mr. Egerton's face. It was paler than usual; and the expression
of Mrs. Darrell's countenance seemed in a manner reflected in it. It
was not possible that such looks could be without some significance.
I felt convinced that these two people had met before.

There was a change in Mr. Egerton's manner from the moment of that
introduction. He laid down Milly's sketch without another word, and
stood with his eyes fixed on Augusta Darrell's face with a strange
half-bewildered look, like a man who doubts the evidence of his own
senses. Mrs. Darrell, on the contrary, seemed, after that one look
which I had seen, quite at her ease, and rattled on gaily about the
delight of travelling in the Tyrol, as compared to the dulness of
life at Thornleigh.

'I hope you will enliven us a little, Mr. Egerton,' she said. 'It is
quite an agreeable surprise to find a new neighbour.'

'I ought to be very much flattered by that remark; but I doubt my