emotions were hardly less conflicting than hers. He, too, would have
liked to escape the meeting, for he had understood clearly that his
presence in her house was most unwelcome to her. But he, too, had his
own pride, as distinct and as strong as hers, and at the very moment
that Hetty was saying to herself, "I'm on my own ground: I won't run
away from the popinjay," Dr. Eben was thinking in his heart, "What a
fool I am to care a straw about meeting her! I'm about my own business,
and she is an obstinate simpleton."

The expressions of their faces as they met, and passed, with cold
bows, were truly comical; each so thoroughly conscious of the other's
antagonism, and endeavoring to look unconscious of it.

"By Jove, she's got a charming face, if she didn't look so obstinate,"
said Dr. Eben to himself, as he hurried on.

"He looked at me as he'd have looked at a snake," thought Hetty. "I
guess he's an honest fellow after all. He's got a handsome beard of his
own."

When she entered Sally's room, Sally exclaimed, "Oh, Hetty! didn't you
meet the doctor?"

"Yes," said Hetty, coolly. Sally looked wistfully at her for a few
seconds. "Oh, Hetty!" she said, "I thought, perhaps, if you saw him,
you'd like him better."

"I never said any thing against his looks, did I?" laughed Hetty. "He is
a very handsome man: he is the handsomest man I ever saw, if that's
all!"