Terry volunteered to make up the required number. It seemed
such a long time till Saturday morning, but Marjorie tried to shorten
it, by running everywhere and telling everybody that Eugene was coming.
The whole house caught the infection. Tryphena and Tryphosa were kept
busy, preparing already for a late six o'clock dinner on the morrow.
There was a putting of rooms in order for the coming guests, during
which Miss Carmichael, conscience stricken, returned the lawyer's verses
to the leaves of Browning. She dreaded meeting the author of them, and
found comfort in the fact that he was not coming alone. If she had not
been, in her own estimation, such a coward, she would have gone on a
visit to Fanny, but she dared not thus offend her uncle and aunt, and
desert her mother and Cecile. What was he coming for? She had not sent
for him. Why did she not want him to come? She did not know, and it was
the right of nobody to question her on the subject. She only knew that
she was very unhappy, and hoped she would not act stupidly before the
stranger from Edinburgh.
That night the Squire received a letter from Coristine, written on
Thursday, saying that Mr.
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