His reliance upon her compassion was not in vain. She was prompt in appearance when at last the long night and the slow day had passed. Taking pity, perhaps, on his haggard countenance, she was kind from the outset of their interview. Prudence attended, as before, but with instructions to be more certain before crying danger than she had been on the previous evening, when, as Georgiana now told Everell, the maid, in the novelty of her duty, had given the alarm at the mere sound of laughter in the house—the laughter of Foxwell and his visitors over their wine and cards. But though this, the third clandestine meeting of these two young people, was not marred by any preliminary chill or by any waste of time, it was soon over. Georgiana herself had set the limit of half an hour, and, whatever it may have cost her of inner reluctance, she showed her resolution by breaking away at the end of that time, silencing her lover’s protests with a voluntary kiss so swiftly bestowed that, in his delighted surprise, he let her slip from his grasp. Again he stood alone in the garden while the dusk came on. Again that weary blank of lagging hours faced him, with the promise of such brief joy to compensate him at the end. He lingered late in the garden, now reviewing in his memory the delectable scene of the evening—delectable but too fleeting!—and now repining at the conditions under which his love had to subsist. “Oh, to be with her one whole day—one day as long as those I pass in waiting for the sunset!” was the burden of his thought. He stood near the terrace steps, taking his last look at the house for the night. The lateness of the hour, the comparative darkness, and perhaps the petulance of his feelings, made him less than usually cautious against observation. Suddenly he heard a patter of feet on the terrace, and the voice of a maid servant calling, “Puss! puss! come, puss!—Devil take the cat!” Everell remained motionless, lest any sound might attract the girl’s attention. In a moment, a cat appeared at the head of the steps, glided along the top of the bank, and plunged amidst the shrubbery of the garden. It had no sooner disappeared than the girl in chase arrived at the edge of the terrace, where she stopped and peered down into the garden, launching imprecations at the animal that had eluded her. Her eyes fell upon Everell, and her wrath died upon her lips.