"Can I come in?"
"It isn't for the likes of me to say you can't;" and with this evasive reply, Ann Packet opened wide the door and admitted him.
He came in on tiptoe, in a manner strangely at variance with his former brusque entrance; he turned to Harriet Wesden first, and spoke in a low whisper to her.
"Mr. Hinchford bade me say, Miss Wesden, that he was waiting for you, down-stairs."
"Thank you—is he——?"
Harriet did not know how to finish her sentence, and left it in its embryo condition. Her face was pale, and her heart was beating violently as she stooped and kissed Mattie.
"Good-bye, dear—I must go now—Sidney is waiting."
"Good-bye—are you not well?" asked Mattie, suddenly.
She was as quick an observer as of yore, and the new expression on Harriet's face suggested the new fear.
"Yes—yes—a little upset by what has happened to-day, that's all. Good-bye." And Harriet Wesden departed hastily.