"Who's there," cried Lucy. "Only me, Miss Alleyne," said a well-known voice. "I was coming across the common, and thought I'd call and see how your brother is." Lucy eagerly began to unfasten the great gate, but for some reason, probably best known to herself, she stopped suddenly, coloured a little, and said--almost sharply,-- "Quick, Eliza, why don't you open the gate?" Thus adjured, the maiden unfastened the ponderous lock, and admitted Philip Oldroyd, who shook hands warmly with Lucy, and then seemed as if he were about to change her hand over to his left, and feel her pulse with his right. "We always have the gate locked at dusk," said Lucy, "the place stands so lonely, and--" "You feel a little nervous," said Oldroyd, smiling, as they walked up to the house. "Oh, no!" said Lucy, eagerly; "I never think there is anything to mind, but the maid is terribly alarmed lest we should be attacked by night. My brother is out," she hastened to say, to fill up a rather awkward pause. "He is taking one of your prescriptions," she added, archly. "Wise man," cried Oldroyd, as they passed round to the front door and went in. "I suppose he will not be long?" "Oh, no!" said Lucy, eagerly; "if you will come in and wait, he is sure to be back soon." Then she hesitated, and hastened to speak again, feeling quite uncomfortable and guilty, as if she had been saying something unmaidenly--as if she had been displaying an eagerness for the young doctor to stop--when all the time she told herself, it was perfectly immaterial, and she did not care in the least. "Of course I can't be sure," she added, growing a little quicker of speech; "but I think he will not be long. He has gone round by the pine wood." "Then I should meet him if I went that way," said Oldroyd, who had also become rather awkward and hesitant. "Oh, yes; I think you would be sure to meet him," cried Lucy eagerly. "Thanks," said Oldroyd, who felt rather vexed that she should be eager to get rid of him; "then perhaps I had better go." "But of course I can't tell which way he will come back," cried Lucy, hastily; "and you might miss him." "To be sure, yes," said Oldroyd, taking heart again; "so I might, and then not see him at all." And he looked anxiously at Lucy's troubled face over the tin candlestick, ornamented with drops of tallow that had fallen upon its sides, while Eliza slowly closed the front door, and gazed with her lips apart from one to the other. Lucy was all repentance again, for in a flash her conscience had told her that she had seemed eager, and pressed the doctor to stay. An awkward pause ensued, one which neither the visitor nor Lucy seemed able to break. Each tried very hard to find something to say, but in vain. "How stupid of me!" thought Lucy, angrily.