"Well--she has got a stunning lot of hair." "Beautiful hair, Johnny!" With the hair close before us, I could only say so. It was brown; rather darker than Anna Whitney's, but with a red tinge in it, and about double the quantity. Nature or art was giving it a wonderful gloss in the light of the setting sun, as she turned her head about, laughing and talking with the Squire. Her dress was some bright purple stuff trimmed with white fur; her hands, lying in repose on her lap, had yellow gauntlets on. "I'm glad I ordered a duck for dinner, in addition to the boiled veal and bacon, Johnny," whispered Mrs. Todhetley again. "The fish won't be much: it is only the cold cod done up in parsley sauce." Tod, at home long before, was at the door ready for us when we arrived. I saw her staring at him in the dusk. "Who was the gentleman that handed me out?" she asked me as we went in. "Mr. Todhetley's son." "I--think--I have heard Helen Whitney talk of him," she said in reflection. "He will be very rich, will he not?" "Pretty well. He will have what his father has before him, Miss Chalk." Mrs. Todhetley suggested tea, but she said she would prefer a glass of wine; and went up to her chamber after taking it. Hannah and the housemaid were hastily putting one in order for her. Sleepy with the frosty air, I was nodding over the fire in the drawing-room when the rustle of silk awoke me. It was Miss Chalk. She came in gleaming like a fairy, her dress shining in the fire-light; for they had not been in to light the candles. It had a green-and-gold tinge, and was cut very low. Did she think we had a party?--or that dressing for dinner was the fashion in our plain country house--as it might have been at a duke's? Her shoulders and arms were white as snow; she wore a silver necklace, the like of which I had never seen, silver bracelets, and a thick cord of silver twisting in and out of her complicated hair. "I'm sure it is very kind of your people to take me in," she said, standing still on the hearthrug in her beauty. "They have lighted a fire in my room; it is so comfortable. I do like a country house. At Lady Augustus Difford's----" Her head went round at the opening of the door. It was Tod. She stepped timidly towards him, like a schoolgirl: dressed as now, she looked no older than one. Tod might have made up his mind not to like her; but he had to surrender. Holding out her hand to him, he could only yield to the vision, and his heart shone in his eyes as he bent them upon her. "I beg your pardon for having passed you without notice; I did not even thank you for lifting me down; but I was frozen with the drive," she said, in low tones. "Will you forgive me, Mr. Todhetley?" Forgive her! As Tod stood there with her hand in his, he looked inclined to eat her. Forgiveness was not enough. He led her to the fire, speaking soft words of gallantry.