`It amazes me, Mrs Graham, bow you could choose such a dilapidated, ricketty old place as this to live in. If you couldn't afford to occupy the whole house, and have it mended up, why couldn't you take a neat little cottage?'

`Perhaps I was too proud, Mr Fergus,' replied she, smiling; `perhaps I took a particular fancy for this romantic, old.fashioned place--but indeed, it has many advantages over a cottage--in the first place, you see, the rooms are larger and more airy; in the second place, the unoccupied apartments, which I don't pay for, may serve as lumber-rooms, if I have anything to put in them; and they are very useful for my little boy to run about in on rainy days when he can't go out; and then, there is the garden for him to play in, and for me to work in. You see I have effected some little improvement already,' continued she, turning to the window. `There is a bed of young vegetables in that corner, and here are some snowdrops and primroses already in bloom--and there, too, is a yellow crocus just opening in the sunshine.'

`But then, how can you bear such a situation--your nearest neighbours two miles distant, and nobody looking in or passing by?--Rose would go stark mad in such a place. She can't put on life unless she sees half a dozen fresh gowns and bonnets a day--not to speak of the faces within; but you might sit watching at these windows all day long, and never see so much as an old woman carrying her eggs to market,'

`I am not sure the loneliness of the place was not one of its chief recommendations--I take no pleasure in watching people pass the windows; and I like to be quiet.'

`Oh! as good as to say, you wish we would all of us mind our own business, and let you alone.'

`No, I dislike an extensive acquaintance; but if I have a few friends, of course I am glad to see them occasionally. No one can be happy in eternal solitude. Therefore, Mr Fergus, if you choose to enter my house as a friend, I will make you welcome; if not, I must confess, I would rather you kept away.' She then turned and addressed some observation to Rose or Eliza.

`And, Mrs Graham,' said he, again, five minutes after, `we were disputing, as we came along, a question that you can readily decide for us, as it mainly regarded yourself--and indeed, we often hold discussions about you; for some of us have nothing better to do than to talk about our neighbours' concerns, and we, the indigenous plants of the soil, have known each other so long, and talked each other over so often, that we are quite sick of that game; so that a stranger coming amongst us makes an invaluable addition to our exhausted sources of amusement, Well, the question, or questions, you are requested to solve--`'

`Hold your tongue, Fergus!' cried Rose, in a fever of apprehension and wrath.

`I won't, I tell you. The questions you are requested to solve are these:--first, concerning your birth, extraction, and previous residence. Some will have it that you are a foreigner, and some an Englishwoman; some a native of the north country, and some of the south; some say--`'

`Well, Mr Fergus, I'll tell you. I'm an Englishwoman--and I don't see why anyone should doubt it--and I was born in the country neither in the extreme north nor south of our happy isle; and in the country I have chiefly passed my life, and now, I hope, you are satisfied; for I am not disposed to answer any more questions at present.'

`Except this--`'

`No, not one more!' laughed she, and instantly quitting her seat, she sought refuge at the window by which I was seated, and, in very desperation, to escape my brother's persecutions, endeavoured to draw me into conversation.

`Mr Markham,' said she, her rapid utterance and heightened colour too plainly evincing her disquietude, `have you forgotten the fine sea view we were speaking of some time ago? I think I must trouble you,