closet. You see, Mr. Maynard, that I do not, for a moment, doubt but that your business justifies this unreasonable visit."
"It does, indeed!" exclaimed Walter, as he followed his guide.
"My lady is alone, for she has come in unusually early, so that Madame Cecile will not be returned these two hours, but I will wait in the antechamber."
They knocked at the door.
"Come in!" said a voice, strange and hollow.
"Madam," said the old man, "Mr. Walter Maynard says that he must see you for a moment on the most pressing business."
Lady Marchmont was still in the same attitude as when her husband left the room—half knelt, half crouched, on the floor. The mechanical restraint that we exercise over ourselves in the presence of our inferiors, made her start from her knee, and say, even calmly, "Oh, very well! shew him in." But she did not know what she was saying; and when Walter, a moment after, entered, it took her
