“And I hope that will not be long,” said the good woman, delighted. She swept along the Dean’s Walk, letting her dress trail after her and holding her head high; she was too much excited to think of holding up her skirts. “Did ye hear him, Lottie, me honey? ‘If you see my aunt,’ says he. Lord bless the man! as if me Lady Caroline was in the way of looking in and taking a cup of tea! Sure, I’d make her welcome, and more sense than shutting herself up in that old house, and never stirring, no, not to save her life. ‘If ye see my aunt,’ says he. Oh, yes! me darlint, I’ll see her, shut up in her state, and looking as if---- He’ll find the difference when he comes to the Deanery, as he says. Not for you, Lottie, me dear; you’re one of themselves, so to speak. But it’s not much thanks me Lady Caroline will give him for sending her a message by Mrs. O’Shaughnessy. I thought I’d burst out in his face, ‘Tell her ye met me by the Abbey door.’ That’s to save me lady’s feelings, Lottie. But I’ll do his bidding next time I see her; I’ll make no bones of it, I’ll up and give her my message. Lord! just to see how me lady would take it. See if I don’t now. For him, he’s a jewel, take me word for it, Lottie; and ye’ll be a silly girl, me honey, if you let a gentleman like Mr. Ridsdale slip through your fingers. A real gentleman--ye can see as much by his manners. If I’d been a duchess, Lottie, me dear, what more could he say?” Lottie made no reply to this speech, any more than to the words Rollo himself had addressed to her. Her mind was all in a confused maze of happy thoughts and anticipations. His looks, his words, were all turned to the same delicious meaning; and he was coming back to the Deanery, when she was to be “more generous” to him. No compliment could have been so penetrating as that soft reproach. Lottie had no words to spend upon her old friend, who, for her part, was sufficiently exhilarated to require no answer. Mrs. O’Shaughnessy rang the changes upon this subject all the way to the Lodges. “‘When you see my aunt,’ says he.” The idea that she was in the habit of visiting Lady Caroline familiarly not only amused but flattered her, though it was difficult enough to understand how this latter effect could come about.