At length all the purchases were completed. Yacoob was departing with a lightened bale of goods and a full purse, his old face wearing an air of gracious courtesy, when a corner of the rattan blinds was lightly pushed aside and a girl's face appeared. "Why, that is the girl I was telling you about, Mrs. Fellowes!" exclaimed Hester. "How good you happen to be here! Perhaps she has thought better of it and come to enrol." Hester rose from her chair, and hurried across the verandah. The blind had been dropped, but when she raised it, there stood the girl, spell-bound, it seemed, staring intently with parched lips and dilating eyes on the young wife who looked at her with a friendly smile. "How do you do! I recollect you quite well. You looked in at our meeting one afternoon. I'm glad you've come this morning, you'll see Mrs. Fellowes herself. Do come in!" The girl hesitated, then curiosity or some other feeling seemed to prevail, and she drew herself up with a repressed air and silently followed the mistress of the house. "This is Leila Baltus I told you of," said Hester, standing in front of Mrs. Fellowes' chair. Something seemed to irritate the girl, who said in a bellicose tone: "Ho, so you've got hold of my name, have you? Well, I'm glad and I'm sorry," she muttered, scanning Hester eagerly, while Mrs. Fellowes eyes rested on her with a meditative glance. "Oh, you needn't be eyeing me up and down like that," retorted the girl, with an insolent toss of her head. "You'll not catch me sitting on a bench like a chit of a schoolgirl after I've seen life. La, you could hardly expect Leila Baltus to do thatt at this time o' day," she added, with a laugh. Before she had finished speaking Mrs. Fellowes' eyes were upon her knitting again. Her face looked grave and troubled, but she made no remark. "But won't you just come once and see what a happy afternoon we have?" asked Hester in a coaxing tone. "We have some beautiful patterns for clothes, and there is reading aloud and singing," she urged, looking into the bitter face with a winning smile of which her friend, glancing up suddenly, seemed to catch the pathos, as a ray of sunlight from aslant the green blinds lit up the fair young face till it looked as an angel's might. Mrs. Fellowes sighed deeply as she bent over her work again, and did not let her eyes rest further on the stranger. "Well, I'll not come to your meeting! That's flat! But no offence meant. I say, does your husband happen to be at home?" asked the girl sharply. "It's with La'yer Rayner I've got a bit of business." "Oh, you want to see my husband on business, do you? You are one of his clients, perhaps? He is at the High Court, but you might see him by appointment," said Hester, thinking after all she had made a stupid mistake.