"Out here a long time!" he exclaimed. "You surprise me. Please stop one moment. I want to tell you of a most interesting conversation I have had with Miss Rose. It has animated me wonderfully." Considering what had occurred that afternoon, this remark could not fail to impress Mrs. Cristie, and she stopped and looked at him. He did not give her time to ask any questions, but went on: "I have been asking her about life in Lethbury--houses, gardens, everything that relates to a home in that delightful village. And what she has told me opens a paradise before me. I did not dream that down in that moon-lighted valley I should be almost rich; that I could offer you--" "And may I ask," she interrupted, "if you have been talking about me to Miss Rose?" "Not a word of it," he answered warmly. "I never mentioned your name, nor referred to you in any way." She could not help ejaculating a little sarcastically: "How circumspect!" "And now," he said, coming closer to her, "will you not give me an answer? I love you, and I cannot wait. And oh! speak quickly, for here comes Mrs. Petter straight towards us." "I do not like Lethbury," said Mrs. Cristie. Lodloe could have stamped his feet, in the fire of his impatience. "But of me, of myself," he said. "And oh! speak quickly, she is almost here." "Please cease," said Mrs. Cristie; "she will hear you." Mrs. Petter came up panting. "I don't want to interrupt you, Mrs. Cristie," she said, "but really and truly you ought to go to your baby. He has stopped crying in the most startling and suspicious way. Of course I don't know what she has done to him, and whether it's anything surgical or laudanum. And it isn't for me to be there to smell the little creature's breath; but you ought to go this minute, and if you find there is anything needed in the way of mustard, or hot water, or sending for the doctor, just call to me from the top of the stairs." "My dear Mrs. Petter," said Mrs. Cristie, "why didn't Calthea Rose come and tell me this herself, instead of sending you?" "She said that she thought you would take it better from me than from her; and after we had made up our minds about it, she said I ought not to wait a second." "Well," said Mrs. Cristie, "it was very good in you to come to me, but I do not feel in the least alarmed. It was Ida's business to quiet the child, and I have no doubt she did it without knives or poison. But now that you are here, Mrs. Petter, I wish to ask your opinion about something that Mr. Lodloe has been talking of to me." The young man looked at her in astonishment. "He has been telling me," continued Mrs. Cristie, "of a gentleman he knows, a person of education, and accustomed to society, who had conceived the idea of living in Lethbury. Now what do you think of that?"