figure as he strode through the garden--then the night concealed him from her view--she crept to the window and listened, but the footsteps were lost on the turf; and here Mrs. Gillett turned the key in the door, and entered. Minnie turned hastily round. "Is he gone?" asked the woman, in a whisper. "Yes," uttered Minnie sadly. "Poor man--poor creature! Oh, Gillett, what a wicked man Marmaduke Burton is!" "Is he? Oh! may be not--he thinks he's right; may be he is, may be he isn't--who can say?" Policy had stepped in again, her handmaiden. "One thing I'm very glad of, Miss Minnie, that Mr. Miles is an engaged man." "Engaged!" cried the girl, surprised; "to whom?" "I don't know, but he solemnly assured me he was, or else be sure I wouldn't have consented to his seeing you alone. People soon fall in love--I know _I_ did with poor, dear Gillett; but I never knew it till he fell out of the apple-tree, and dessicated his shoulder. And I'm sure, when they strapped him down in the chair, to pull it back again, (it was sadly put out,) I felt in such an agonized state, as if vultures were feedin' on my vitals! Ah! that's true love, Miss Minnie--I hope you may never know how sharp its tooth is, for it gnaws through every barricade, as one may say." Minnie was in deep thought, thinking and wondering what sort of person Miles loved: Was she dark?--fair? and, above all, did she love him _very much_? She thought--indeed, she was sure--that she should love such a man! In a very meditative mood, she entered the drawing-room.