To this desultory harangue, and to much more of the same description, narrating and commenting upon all the events which had occurred since his departure, did Markham closely and attentively listen. He liked the old gentleman very much, for he had received good advice from him, and many compliments which are more agreeable than all the good advice in the world. While Mr. Martindale was speaking, Clara made her appearance, accompanied by Mr. Tippetson. The old gentleman introduced the young men to each other, and they looked at each other rather coldly. Clara tried to be very composed, but could not succeed. She trembled, blushed, and stammered: she made a hasty retreat, and ran up stairs to her own apartment, and when there, she gave way to a flood of tears. It was easy to indulge in this emotion, but it was not easy to suppress it. There she sat sobbing and weeping, and silently reproaching herself, unconscious and heedless of the lapse of time. A multitude of conflicting thoughts rushed into her mind, and her heart was a chaos of confusion and distress. She scarcely knew what she had been saying, doing, or thinking of. She thought that Markham looked reproachfully at her, and she thought that he had a right to look so. Poor innocent! she never found out that she had a heart till it began to reproach and torment her. Not very long had she been thus employed in tormenting herself, when Signora Rivolta, who heard that Clara was in her own apartment, and understood that she had just met Markham on his return to England, suspecting that the meeting would produce an impression on her daughter's feelings, entered the young lady's room, and was grieved to see the very powerful emotion in which she was indulging herself. The Signora, who though an essentially kind mother, had generally a sternness and hardness of manner in addressing her daughter on matters of conduct and deportment, now saw that it was absolutely necessary to use the utmost gentleness and considerateness in speaking to her. Assuming therefore an unusual degree of softness of manner and mildness of tone, she gently approached the poor sufferer, and taking her hand and sitting down by her side, said,