Within the beautiful old porch sat Sidwell Warricombe and her friend of the striking countenance, whom Godwin now knew as Miss Moorhouse.

Buckland addressed his sister in a tone of lively pleasure.
'Whom do you think I have met and brought home with me?
Here is my old friend, Godwin Peak.' Under the two pairs of female eyes, Godwin kept a calm, if rather stern, face.
'I should have had no difficulty in recognising Mr.Peak,' said Sidwell, holding out her hand.

'But was the meeting quite by chance ?' To Godwin himself the question was of course directed, with a look of smiling interest--such welcome as could not have been improved upon; she listened to his reply, then presented him to Miss Moorhouse.

A slight languor in her movements and her voice, together with the beautiful coldness of her complexion, made it probable that she did not share the exuberant health manifest in her two brothers.

She conversed with mature self-possession, yet showed a slight tendency to abstractedness.