The day preceding the fête at “the Ferns,” brought Victoria over to the Vicarage to make the final arrangements concerning Hilary and her sisters. Mr. Duncan entirely declining to be present, it had been settled that Mr. and Mrs. Paine should spend the day with him, while his daughters were all absent; an arrangement which Hilary was more than half inclined to contest, as hardly doing sufficient for his comfort. She and her sisters were to be under the especial care and chaperonage of Mrs. Fielding, who, since she could not persuade the father to come, said she should find some compensation in taking charge of his daughters. Victoria came on Tuesday to propose that the sisters should be fetched over rather early, that they might be comfortably established before the general assembly appeared; and, also, Miss Fielding said that Hilary might help her overlook the preparations, and see that all was complete and appropriate. While she said this Victoria’s eyes were glancing inquiringly at the tall, dark, handsome stranger who was seated, with a book in his hand, at the other end of the room, but who, she was sure, was listening attentively to her discourse. After a moment’s consideration, Hilary asked leave for Maurice to bring a friend with him, and then named Captain Hepburn to Miss Fielding; but the introduction was not made without a slight blush, which Victoria’s keen eyes perceived. She received this new acquaintance with equal grace and graciousness, gave him a cordial invitation to her fête, and was as pleasant as possible for a few minutes; then she turned again to Hilary, talked of Charles, who was to return that evening; his anxiety that all should be right, his confidence in Hilary’s taste, and his wishes that it should be consulted, and some other remarks, of a kind which _she_ passed by as mere compliments, from the woman who was engaged to Mr. Huyton; but which there was another person whose ignorance of this fact made him view very differently. When Victoria was gone, Captain Hepburn arose, and after walking once or twice from the window to the table, he suddenly asked Miss Duncan if she was not intending to exchange her thimble for her bonnet, and take some exercise that afternoon. Maurice and his father had gone on a long expedition across the forest, the latter on a pony which his son led, and Hilary had intimated an intention of going to meet them on their return, which Captain Hepburn was evidently anxious she should fulfil. Her sisters were at Primrose Bank, and there was nothing to interrupt the perfection of their _tête-à-tête_ except a slight and unusual shade of something in Captain Hepburn’s eyes, which Hilary had never seen before, and did not quite understand now.