Alas! her heart was indeed becoming hardened by her selfish pride. Mary and her father had one evening been enjoying their usual walk, when one of those sudden storms, which often succeed sultry weather, came on. They were not within a mile of any house where they could ask for shelter; but they chanced to be near a wide arch which had been constructed across the road for the convenience of a railway line. Above them, rolled the hissing engine and its long train, and glad enough were they of the protection the archway afforded. They had not, however, been there many minutes before they perceived an open carriage coming rapidly along the road, and as, just when it reached the point where Mr. Mannering and his daughter had found shelter, the storm increased to its utmost violence, the elder of the two gentlemen, whom the carriage contained, desired the coachman to draw up under the archway until the pouring rain should have somewhat abated. The gentlemen were Dr. Vernon, a celebrated physician, and his son. I should have told you before that Mary was not considered so handsome as her sister, and, as you know, she had not the advantage of gay and fashionable attire; but both the gentlemen have often said since that there was something inexpressively interesting in her appearance. I suspect hers must have been the loveliness of a kind, affectionate, and contented heart, which showed itself in her watchful attention to her blind father, and in her always unaffected manner. Dr. Vernon was the first to address Mr. Mannering, when he not only perceived his affliction, but also discovered he was conversing with no ordinary individual; for it is astonishing, when two persons of great acquirements and high moral worth are thrown together, how speedily they understand each other. The storm continuing, prolonged the interview, until, in the course of conversation, it appeared that Dr. Vernon and Mr. Mannering had known each other in their youth, though circumstances had separated them in later years. This, of course, was an additional source of interest, and, after a little while, Dr. Vernon insisted on Mary and her father getting into his carriage, and promised to set them down at their own door.