"Listening at keyholes!" exclaimed Mrs. Fox-Cordery scornfully. "What next?" "No, no, mother," expostulated Mr. Fox-Cordery; "be just. It was quite natural that Charlotte should listen. Everybody would not have done so, but then Charlotte is not everybody." "My happiness was at stake," said Charlotte, "and I was anxious." "You hear, mother. Charlotte was anxious." "I was not eavesdropping," said Charlotte. "I was downstairs, and your voices forced themselves upon me. Shortly afterward Mr. Dixon came down and told me that there had been a disagreeable scene between you, and that you would not listen to what he had to say about our engagement. 'But I will not give you up,' he said, 'unless you turn away from me.' I answered that it depended upon him, and that I should be very unhappy if our engagement were broken. He said it should not be broken, and that if I would remain true to him he would remain true to me." "It has a pastoral sound," observed Mr. Fox-Cordery. "Such charming simplicity!" "He suggested that, before he left the house, we should speak to you together of an agreement we had entered into, and we came up to you. You cannot have forgotten what passed at that interview." "You were informed that we would not sanction the engagement." "And Mr. Dixon, speaking for himself and for me, told you that we held to it, and that we had agreed not to think seriously of marriage for three years, during which time he hoped to so improve his position that he would be able to make a home for me. We bound ourselves to this in your presence, and Mr. Dixon said that he would not visit the house without some strong inducement. He has not done so. When he calls this afternoon you will learn why he has come now. During these three years we have corresponded, and have met occasionally in the streets, and have spoken together." "I believe," remarked Mr. Fox-Cordery, "that servants and their young men are in the habit of meeting in this way." "I have been no better than a servant," retorted Charlotte, "and many a poor girl has left service to enter into a happy marriage." "As you are going to do?" "I do not know. What I wish you and mother to understand is that the three years have expired, and that we do not consider ourselves bound to you any longer." "Never in the whole course of my life," said Mrs. Fox-Cordery, "did I listen to anything so unladylike and indelicate." "What it is necessary for you to understand," said Mr. Fox-Cordery, "is that Mr. Dixon will not be permitted to visit you here." "He will not come to see me here." "Where, then?" "I prefer not to tell you." "You have some idea of a place of meeting?" "I have something better than an idea, Fox; I have almost a hope." He repeated her words thoughtfully, "almost a hope," and fixed his eyes upon her face; but he could not read there what he desired to read.