"Who is that?"
The figure halted suddenly and turned around. In a moment he was standing beside me with his hat in one hand, the other extended towards me.
"Why, Dr Campbell, can this be you?" I cried in slow bewilderment.
"Yes, Miss Hampden, it is I" he answered nervously, "Are you glad to see me?"
"Glad" I repeated, half reproachfully, "why should I not be glad? I am delighted to see you. Won't you come in" I asked, making a movement to open the gate.
"I have just been to the house, asking for you," he said. "They told me you had gone out to dine, and they could not say exactly when you would come back. I have only to-day to spend in the town, and was feeling quite disappointed at not finding you at home, when the clashing of the gate arrested my attention. But tell me," he interrupted gently, "How are you, how have you been since I saw you last?"
"Oh, I have been well enough, thank you. Cousin Bessie is the very personification of kindness, and gives me every comfort. I only hope you have been as well treated as I have," I returned, with an effort at ordinary civility.
He did not answer immediately; he looked away from me and then said slowly.
"I have been pretty well—but not well enough. I have been studying and working very hard."
"What, you?" escaped me before I could control it. He laughed an odd little laugh and added: "Yes—me, I have not gone out to a dance or pleasure party of any kind since—since you left. I have lived with my books, day and night."