see whether I have not cunning to plot and courage to act.
Conduct--conduct--conduct--there lies my talent; and what is conduct but
a steady walk from a design to its execution?"

With these thoughts Ferrers sought Mrs. Templeton. He opened the
folding-doors very gently, for all his habitual movements were quick and
noiseless, and perceived that Mrs. Templeton sat by the window, and that
she seemed engrossed with a book which lay open on a little work-table
before her.

"Fordyce's /Advice to Young Married Women/, I suppose. Sly jade!
However, I must not have her against me."

He approached; still Mrs. Templeton did not note him; nor was it till he
stood facing her that he himself observed that her tears were falling
fast over the page.

He was a little embarrassed, and, turning towards the window, affected
to cough, and then said, without looking at Mrs. Templeton, "I fear I
have disturbed you."

"No," answered the same low, stifled voice that had before replied to
Lumley's vain attempts to provoke conversation; "it was a melancholy
employment, and perhaps it is not right to indulge in it."

"May I inquire what author so affected you."

"It is but a volume of poems, and I am no judge of poetry; but it
contains thoughts which--which--" Mrs. Templeton paused abruptly, and
Lumley quietly took up the book.