"Well, those odd people went away from Malory"--began Charity. "Oh, yes, I heard, I think, something of that," said Cleve, intending to change the subject, perhaps; but Miss Charity went on, for in that eventless scene an occurrence of any kind is too precious to be struck out of the record on any ground. "They went away as mysteriously as they came--almost--and so suddenly"---- "You forgot, Charity, dear, Mr. Verney was at Ware when they went, and here two or three times after they left Malory." "So I _was_," said Cleve, with an uneasy glance at Tom Sedley; "I _knew_ I had heard something of it." "Oh, yes; and they say that the old man was both mad and in debt." "What a combination!" said Cleve. "Yes, I assure you, and a Jew came down with twenty or thirty bailiffs--I'm only telling you what Mr. Apjohn heard, and the people here tell us--and a mad doctor, and people with strait waistcoats, and they surrounded Malory; but he was gone!--not a human being knew where--and that handsome girl, wasn't she quite _bee-au-tiful_?" "Oh, what everyone says, you know, _must_ be true," said Cleve. "What do _you_ say?" she urged upon Tom Sedley. "Oh, I say ditto to everyone, of course." "Well, I should think so, for you know you are quite desperately in love with her," said Miss Charity. "_I?_ Why, I really never spoke to her in all my life. Now, if you had said Cleve Verney." "Oh, yes! If you had named _me_. But, by Jove! there they go. Do you see? My uncle and the mayor, and all the lesser people, trooping away to the town-hall. Good-bye! I haven't another moment. You'll be here, I _hope_, when we get out; _do, pray_. I have not a moment." And he meant a glance for Miss Agnes, but it lost itself in air, for that young lady was looking down, in a little reverie, on the grass, at the tip of her tiny boot. "_There's_ old Miss Christian _out_, I _declare_!" exclaimed Charity. "Did you ever _hear_ of such a thing? I _wonder_ whether Doctor Lyster knows she is out to-day. I'll just go and speak to her. If he doesn't, I'll simply tell her she is _mad_!" And away marched Miss Charity, bent upon finding out, as she said, all about it. "Agnes," said Tom Sedley, "it seemed to me to-day, you were not glad to see me. Are you vexed with me?" "Vexed? No, indeed!" she said, gently, and looking up with a smile. "And your sister said----" Tom paused, for he did not know whether Charity's whisper about her not having been "very strong" might not be a confidence. "_What_ does Charity say?" asked Agnes, almost sharply, while a little flush appeared in her cheeks. "Well, she said she did not think you were so strong as usual. That was all." "That was _all_--no great consequence," said she, with a little smile upon the grass and sea-pinks--a smile that was bitter. "You can't think I meant that, little Agnes, _I_ of all people; but I never was good at talking. And you _know_ I did not mean that."