At last we heard them on the gravel; and the question arose who was to receive him.

It was, strictly speaking, my duty; but I felt timid; I could not help shirking it, and insisted that Caroline should go down.

She did not, however, go near the door as she usually does when anybody is expected, but waited palpitating in the drawing-room.

He little thought when he saw the silent hall, and the apparently deserted house, how that house was at the very same moment alive and throbbing with interest under the surface.

I stood at the back of the upper landing, where nobody could see me from downstairs, and heard him walk across the hall--a lighter step than my father's--and heard him then go into the drawing-room, and the servant shut the door behind him and go away.
What a pretty lover's meeting they must have had in there all to themselves! Caroline's sweet face looking up from her black gown--how it must have touched him.