"Well," resumed he, "in disavowal of fashion and petrifaction, will you drink tea with Mrs. Winter and myself at half-past six this evening. I'll make the Vernons come. I have lived so much on the Continent that I cannot get into the absurdity of fashionable English dinner hours, but take mine when my stomach cries cupboard, which is generally at two o'clock."
"I shall be most happy," said I.
"Well, good morning, be diligent; by the way look in early, shew me the result of your labours, and take a peep at my studio."
"A thousand thanks, yes."
It was still early, too early I thought for a visit to the Priory House, so arming myself with sketch book and pencil, I returned to an old tumble down carriers' inn, which had struck my eye while rambling with Winter, and commenced transferring it to paper; while my mind was filled with another picture, that drawn by Winter, of the lonely deformed organist and the angelic kindness of Kate Vernon.
"What a fate!" I exclaimed aloud; but with the sounds of my own voice, came the recollection of the peculiarly peaceful expression of his face! There was no misery of look, none of that restlessness which the perpetual mortification of such a life might well be expected to produce. "No, he is happy! happier perhaps than I am, with youth and health and this straight strong frame, and my rightful place among the nobles of the land; and wealth—halte la! have I wealth? Yes, compared with him, but by no means sufficient to marry. Then I never dreamt of marrying. No! I have every thing, and this poor fellow nothing, and yet, would he change with me? By Jove, I'd take the long odds he has not a dunning tailor; that's an item in my 'haves,' and his 'has nots,' I forgot to enumerate; but its must now be time to call on Kate.
"To greet the heart that yearns for thee."
I cannot get that air out of my head."
The sun, which had all the morning been obscured by heavy clouds, shone out with the brilliancy and warmth of June rather than September. As I entered the little garden before Colonel Vernon's cottage I paused a moment in the vain endeavour to decipher the inscription over the gateway; a B, a C, and a very faint D were all I could make out.