On this especial evening Adrienne was tired more than usual, and mentally as well as physically weary. An undefined pain and distress had troubled her mind for some weeks--to-day the cloud was very dark. She had seen Sebastian Mallory growing more and more intimate with her uncle, and progressing with great rapidity in the favour of that most fastidious individual; she had seen--how could she help seeing?--Sebastian’s attentions to herself; how, when he was with her, his eyes constantly turned towards her, and how a light flashed into their quietness when they met hers; how his voice, in speaking to her, took a deeper sound. He was good, rich, handsome, clever, kind. She knew all his good qualities, and thoroughly valued them. She approved of him; she liked his presence; it was pleasant to her. She remembered with deep, earnest gratitude his delicate kindness and attention to her in those days gone by, when her troubles with her father, and her terrible struggle against their adverse circumstances had threatened to overwhelm her. ‘I would do anything for you,’ she had said, and had meant it. And yet, now! How painfully, unaccountably, unexpectedly things changed! Thus meditating, her step dragged, and her head drooped a little, as they paced the dreary length of Blake Street together. She did not understand why that load of oppression and longing--that _Sehnsucht_--should just now lie so heavily upon her heart. Sebastian paused at the gate, and laid his hand upon it, and then Adrienne seemed to see, in a flash of sunlight, Myles Heywood’s tall figure and earnest face; as he, in the same attitude, almost a year ago, had laid his hand upon that wicket, and had opened it for her to pass in. Her heart throbbed--something rose in her throat as she entered. ‘Myles has not been near us for weeks,’ said she to herself. ‘I will go and call there some day, very soon,’ she added valiantly, ‘and ask the reason of it, and if I have done anything to offend them.’ Mr. Blisset, his servant said, was not at all well. He felt very weak, and had gone to bed, and he had left word that if Mr. Mallory called, he particularly wished to see him. Sebastian followed the man upstairs. Adrienne went into the drawing-room, and mechanically sat down, without even turning up the shaded lamp, and her hands clasped themselves before her upon her knees. Sebastian sat a long time beside Mr. Blisset’s bed, for their conversation was prolonged. At last Mr. Blisset said, ‘And I have made you one of my executors. I hope you don’t mind. I have so few friends.’ ‘I am honoured in being chosen, and will gladly undertake it.’ ‘Thank you. Of course, I have left everything to Adrienne. She will be placed above all money troubles; for she is like me, she has no extravagant desires. But I should wish the child to have a staunch friend, and you are different from other young men, or I would not have asked it. Will you be her friend?’