Hester pondered well before returning an answer. She could hardly say, she replied, that there was no danger, for her brother, who had been ill, was yet in the house, too weak for the journey to Yrndale. She would rather suggest, therefore, that they should meet in some quiet corner of one of the parks. She need hardly add she would take every precaution against carrying infection. The proposal proved acceptable to Miss Vavasor. She wrote suggesting time and place. Hester agreed, and they met. Hester appeared on foot, having had to dismiss her cab at the gate; Miss Vavasor, who had remained seated in her carriage; got down as soon as she saw her, and having sent it away, advanced to meet her with a smile: she was perfect in skin-hospitality. "How long is it now," she began, "since you saw Gartley?" "Three weeks or a month," replied Hester. "I am afraid, sadly afraid, you cannot be much of a lover, not to have seen him for so long and look so fresh!" smiled Miss Vavasor, with gently implied reproach, and followed the words with a sigh, as if _she_ had memories of a different complexion. "When one has one's work to do,--" said Hester. "Ah, yes!" returned Miss Vavasor, not waiting for the sentence, "I understand you have some peculiar ideas about work. That kind of thing is spreading very much in our circle too. I know many ladies who visit the poor. They complain there are so few unobjectionable tracts to give them. The custom came in with these Woman's-rights. I fear they will upset everything before long. But I hope the world will last my time. No one can tell where such things will end." "No," replied Hester. "Nothing has ever stopped yet." "Is that as much as to say that nothing ever will stop?" "I think it is something like it," said Hester. "We know nothing about the ends of things--only the beginnings." There had been an air of gentle raillery in Miss Vavasor's tone, and Hester used the same, for she had no hope of coming to an understanding with her about anything. "Then the sooner we do the better! I don't see else how things are to go on at all!" said Miss Vavasor, revealing the drop of Irish blood in her. "When the master comes he will stop a good deal," thought Hester, but she did not say it. She could not allude to such things without at least a possibility of response. "You and Gartley had a small misunderstanding, he tells me, the last time you met," continued Miss Vavasor, after a short pause. "I think not," answered Hester; "at least I fancy I understood him very well." "My dear Miss Raymount, you must not be offended with me. I am an old woman, and have had to compose differences that had got in the way of their happiness between goodness knows how many couples. I am not boasting when I say I have had considerable experience in that sort of thing."