'How do you think you shall like your quarters?' she asked. 'Mr. Hunter told me he recommended you to Peter Quale's.' 'Very well. At least they will do. Mrs. Quale, it appears, is an old friend of mine.' 'An old friend! Of yours!' 'She claims me as one, and says she has nursed me many a time when I was a child. I had quite forgotten her, and all about her, though I now remember her name. She was formerly a servant in my mother's family, near Ketterford.' Thus Austin Clay had succeeded without delay or difficulty in obtaining employment, and was, moreover, received on a footing of equality in the house of Mr. Henry Hunter. We shall see how he gets on. CHAPTER V. MISS GWINN'S VISIT. Were there space, it might be well to trace Austin Clay's progress step by step--his advancements and his drawbacks--his smooth-sailing and his difficulties; for, that his course was not free from difficulties and drawbacks you may be very sure. I do not know whose is. If any had thought he was to be represented as perfection, they were mistaken. Yet he managed to hold on his way without moral damage, for he was high-principled in every sense of the word. But there is neither time nor space to give to these particulars that regard himself alone. Austin Clay sat one day in a small room of the office, making corrections in a certain plan, which had been roughly sketched. It was a hot day for the beginning of autumn, some three or four months having elapsed since his installation at Hunter and Hunter's. The office boy came in to interrupt him. 'Please, sir, here's a lady outside, asking if she can see young Mr. Clay.' 'A lady!' repeated Austin, in some wonder. 'Who is it?' 'I think she's from the country, sir,' said the sharp boy. 'She have got a big nosegay in her hand and a brown reticule.' 'Does she wear widow's weeds?' questioned Austin hastily, an idea flashing over him that Mrs. Thornimett might have come up to town. 'Weeds?' replied the boy, staring, as if at a loss to know what 'weeds' might mean. 'She have got a white veil on, sir.' 'Oh,' said Austin. 'Well, ask her to come in. But I don't know any lady that can want me. Or who has any business to come here if she does,' he added to himself. The lady came in: a very tall one. She wore a dark silk dress, a shepherd's plaid shawl, a straw bonnet, and a white veil. The reticule spoken of by the boy was in her hand; but the nosegay she laid down on a bench just outside the door. Austin rose to receive her. 'You are doubtless surprised to see me, Austin Clay. But, as I was coming to London on business--I always do at this season of the year--I got your address from Mrs. Thornimett, having a question to put to you.'