said that his cousin Delia was something of the coquette.

Still they asked with evident awe if it were true that their unfortunate
cousin really intended to admit them, and they evidently became more
and more nervous while waiting for Jumbo's summons. Dr. Godfrey gave
his arm to Mrs. Phoebe, and Mrs. Delia gripped hold of Aurelia's,
trembling all over, declaring she felt ready to swoon, and marvelling
how Miss Delavie could ever have ventured, all alone too!

After all, things had been made much less formidable than at Aurelia's
first introduction. The sitting-room was arranged as it was when Mr.
Greaves read prayers, with a very faint light from a shrouded lamp
behind the window curtain. To new comers it seemed pitchy darkness,
but to Aurelia and Dr. Godfrey it was a welcome change, allowing them
at least to perceive the forms of one another, and of the furniture.
From a blacker gulf, being the doorway to the inner room, came Mr.
Belamour's courteous voice of greeting to his kinswomen, who were led
up by their respective guides to take his hand; after which he begged
them to excuse the darkness, since the least light was painful to him
still. If they would be seated he would remain where he was, and
enjoy the society he was again beginning to be able to appreciate.
He was, in fact, sitting within his own room, with eyes covered from
even the feeble glimmer in the outer room.

It was some minutes before they recovered their self-possession, but
Dr. Godfrey and Mr. Belamour began the conversation, and they gradually
joined in. It was chiefly full of reminiscences of the lively days
when Dr. Godfrey had been a young Cantab visiting his two friends at
Bowstead, and Phoebe and Delia were the belles of the village. Aurelia
scarcely opened her lips, but she was astonished to find how different