He strode to the door and spoke to Miss Brooke. "I am just showing your niece some of the books: I'll follow in a minute or two with her if you'll kindly walk on. It won't take me more than a minute." "Then we may as well wait," said Oliver's voice. Lesley would have been very angry if she had known what happened then. Mr. Kenyon, by means of energetic pantomime, conveyed to the quick perceptions of Doctor Sophy a knowledge of the fact that Lesley was a little agitated and overcome, and that he was soothing her. And that the departure of the rest of the party would be a blessed relief. Aunt Sophy was good-natured, and she had complete trust in Maurice Kenyon. "Don't stay more than a minute or two," she said. "We'll just walk on then--Caspar and I. Mr. Trent is, of course, escorting your sister. Mrs. Romaine will come with us, and you'll follow?" "I am quite ready," said Lesley. "All right," answered Maurice, easily, "I must first show you this book." Then he returned to the library, and she heard the sounds of retreating steps and voices as her father and his party left the building. "You have no book to show me--you had better come at once," Lesley said, severely. But Mr. Kenyon arrested her. "I assure you I have. Look here: the men clubbed together a little while ago and presented your father's works to the library, all bound, you see, in vellum. I need not mention that _he_ had not thought it worth while to give his own books to the club." He showed her the volumes with pride, as if the presentation had been made to a member of his own family. Lesley touched the books with gentle fingers and reverent eyes. "I have been reading 'The Unexplored,'" she said. "I knew you would! And I knew you would like it!--I am not wrong?" "I like it very much. But it is all new to me--so new--I feel like Ione when she first heard of the miseries of England--I have lived in an enchanted world, where everything of that sort was kept from me; so--_how_ could I understand?" "I know! I know!--You make me doubly ashamed of myself. I have lived, metaphorically, in dust and ashes ever since we had that talk together. Miss Brooke, I must have seemed to you the most intolerable prig! Can you ever forgive me for what I said?" "But," said Lesley, looking straight into his face with her clear brown eyes, "if what you said was true?----" "I had no right to say it." "That is true," Lesley answered, coldly; and she turned about as though she did not wish to pursue the subject. "But can you not forgive me for it? I was unjustifiably angry I confess; but since I confess it----" "Mr. Kenyon, we ought to be going home. I see the woman is waiting to put the lights out." "We will go home if you like--certainly," said Maurice, in a tone of vexed disappointment. "Take care of the step--yes, here is the door. I am afraid we cannot get a cab in this neighborhood; but as soon as we reach a more civilized locality, I will do my best to find one for you."