“Not at all. I suppose he hasn’t been able to pick up a cab and has perhaps started to walk home. Uneasy? No indeed! what is to hurt him in broad daylight? But, Drusilla, you have been crying! You have been crying hard! Now was it ever heard that the belle of the evening came home from her triumphs and cried?” said Mrs. Hammond, sitting down beside her friend. “Oh, Anna! Anna! Oh, Anna! Anna! if you knew how little my heart was in it all! What _could_ I care for all those strange people—I who only longed to be reconciled with my Alick!” she answered, bursting into a torrent of tears. “He was there,” said Anna, quietly. “Do I not know it? He was there all the evening. He was near me many times. I felt that he was, though I did not see him; for oh, Anna, I was afraid to look towards him and meet again that cold and cutting gaze that almost slew me in the Tower!” “Don’t ky, Doosa! Please don’t ky. ’Deed Lenny be dood boy. Let Lenny wipe eye,” said the child, taking up the edge of his night-gown and trying to dry his mother’s tears. “My darling, you _are_ good, and I won’t cry to distress you, poor little soul. I should have died long ago if it hadn’t been for you, my little angel. There, Doosa has done crying now,” she said, wiping her eyes and smiling on the child. “Drusa, my dear, you were very brilliant last evening, not only beautiful, but brilliant. I really thought you enjoyed queening it in society. You laughed and talked and danced the whole evening. I should never have suspected you of playing a part.” “Oh Anna! I was not exactly playing a part either. Oh, Anna, you have heard how the timid Chinese sound a gong and make a terrible noise to drown their own fears and to dismay their foes when they go into battle? Anna, it was much the same with me. I had to laugh and talk and dance and jest to deafen me to the cry in my heart, which was almost breaking all the while. Oh, Anna, he has ceased to love me now! I know it, he has entirely ceased to love me!” “I don’t feel so sure of that myself, Drusilla. If you, were afraid to look at him, I was not. I saw him several times in the course of the evening; and whenever I saw him he was standing near you and following you with his eyes.” “He was? He was, Anna?” eagerly, breathlessly inquired the young wife. “Indeed he was.” “You are sure?” “Quite sure. I watched him.” “Ah, but—perhaps he did so in hate or in anger,” said Drusilla, with a sigh. Anna was silent. “Say! was it not in anger or in hate, Anna?” “I thought it was in jealousy, and that you know is a sign of love.” “Oh, if I thought so! if I thought so! how quickly I would set all that jealousy at rest. How soon I would convince my Alick that I care for but him in this whole world!” she exclaimed, fervently clasping her hands. “Indeed, Drusilla, I hope you would do nothing of the sort. He richly deserves to suffer.” “Oh, Anna! you don’t like Alick,” said Drusilla, reproachfully.