“Well, I consider it a piece of unexampled good luck, your meeting him to-day,” the elder lady remarked, with animation. “I did not dream that he was on this side of the Atlantic and we should have been on our way to New York a week later. Do you suppose he has written to us again at Berlin that he was coming abroad, and, failing to get a reply, has been wandering about in search of us?” “I am sure I have no idea,” mused the young lady. “I have always thought it very strange that we never heard anything after receiving that letter of appointment last year. It has struck me that he was very shy of us—that he dreaded to meet a woman whom some one else had picked out for him; and no one could blame him if he did. Still, he might at least have explained his delay in coming abroad.” “Describe him to me, Sadie. Is he nice-looking?” asked Mrs. Rochester with eager interest. “Mamma, he is grand—a perfect king in appearance! I believe he is the handsomest man I have ever seen,” the young lady returned with a glowing face. “Only,” she added, “he seemed strangely sad, as if he had recently met with some great trouble, and there was a wide band upon his hat. There must have been some recent death in his family.” “Perhaps that is the secret of his long delay in coming abroad,” said Mrs. Rochester. “However,” she added, a peculiar gleam in her dark eyes as they met her daughter’s, “it is rather fortunate for us, for we can manage things our own way now. You think you will like him?” “‘Like?’ It is a strange word to use in connection with him,” said Miss Rochester, with a flush. “Then there will be nothing disagreeable to you in fulfilling the conditions of the will, provided the gentleman is also agreeable?” questioned Mrs. Rochester, bestowing a searching glance upon her companion. “No, indeed!” she answered decidedly. “If I am any judge, Dr. Winthrop is a man who would not meet his equal among a thousand. Any woman might feel proud to win him for her husband, even without the very tempting plum that his uncle has left him.” “Well, well! I should say this was a case of love at first sight,” said Mrs. Rochester, laughing; “and it is evident that you will do your utmost to make yourself agreeable.” “Yes, if he gives me the opportunity; but I am not going to throw myself at him, much as I desire to become mistress of that double fortune,” responded the girl haughtily, but with an anxious frown upon her brow. “Well, he might go the world over and never find as handsome a wife as you would make him, Sadie,” returned her mother, bestowing a proud glance upon her daughter. “For my sake, as well as your own, you must try to win him, for you know the will says that I can have full control of the income of fifty thousand only upon the consummation of the marriage. What an abominable will it is!” she added indignantly; “and what a couple of fools those two men were! Do you believe Dr. Winthrop will call upon us?”