"Not such a fine morning as this, Sophy. It would be such a pity for baby to lose the sunshine; and I have really nothing to do." "If I had known a little sooner that you were going, I would have gone with you," said Miss Granger. Clarissa's countenance fell. She could not help that little troubled look, which told Miss Granger that her society would not have been welcome. "You would have had no objection to my coming with you, I suppose?" the fair Sophia said sharply. "Baby is not quite a monopoly." "Of course not. If you'll put on your things now, Sophia, I'll wait for you." It was a hard thing for Clarissa to make the offer, when she had been waiting so anxiously for this opportunity of seeing her brother. To be in the same city with him, and not see him, was more painful than to be divided from him by half the earth, as she had been. It was harder still to have to plot and plan and stoop to falsehood in order to compass a meeting. But she remembered the stern cold look in her husband's face when she had spoken of Austin, and she could not bring herself to degrade her brother by entreating Daniel Granger's indulgence for his past misdeeds, or Daniel Granger's interest in his future fortunes. Happily Sophia had made elaborate preparations for the Gothic texts, and was not inclined to waste so much trouble. "I have got my colours all ready," she said, "and have put everything out, you see. No, I don't think I'll go to-day. But another time, if you'll be so kind as to let me know _beforehand_, I shall be pleased to go with my brother. I suppose you know there's an east wind to-day, by-the-bye." The quarter whence the wind came, was a subject about which Clarissa had never concerned herself. The sun was shining, and the sky was blue. "We have plenty of wraps," she said, "and we can have the carriage closed if we are cold." "It is not a day upon which _I_ should take an infant out," Miss Granger murmured, dipping her brush in some Prussian-blue; "but of course you know best." "O, we shall take care of baby, depend upon it. Good-bye, Sophy." And Clarissa departed, anxious to avoid farther remonstrance on the part of her step-daughter. She told the coachman to drive to the Luxembourg Gardens, intending to leave the nurse and baby to promenade that favourite resort, while she made her way on foot to the Rue du Chevalier Bayard. She remembered that George Fairfax had described her brother's lodging as near the Luxembourg.