'How curious you should all three visit me just at the same time,' said Mrs. Trelawney.
'I was visiting my poor,' said Alison.
'And came to comfort the widow and orphan on the way.'
'Have you many recipients of your bounty, Miss Cheyne?' said Dalton, for lack of something else to say.
'I have little in my power; but they are all so grateful and so good.'
'Ah!' said Mrs. Trelawney, 'I don't take so charitable a view of human nature as you do, child; if the poor are generally virtuous, it is because they have not the guineas to be wicked with.'
'One of your wild speeches, Mrs. Trelawney, I hope,' said Goring; 'my guineas are few—thus I have a fellow-feeling.'
And, leaving the last visitor and their hostess to discuss the point tête-à-tête, the lovers strolled into the now somewhat desolate garden, where the fallen leaves lay thick; but their own emotions seemed to brighten it with all the flowers that ever grew in Eden, and with the walks they were pretty familiar with now.
'And so you were dining en famille at old Cadbury's place?' said Goring, as he drew her hand over his arm and retained it there. 'Was it a slow affair, darling?'
'Utterly slow,' said Alison, with a sigh, while looking into his face with smiling eyes.