AN UNEXPECTED MESSENGER After this agitation, and these partial confidences, no more was said on the subject of Philip for many weeks.

They avoided even the slightest allusion to him; and none of them knew how seldom or how often he might be present in the minds of the others.
One day the little Bella was unusually fractious with some slight childish indisposition, and Sylvia was obliged to have recourse to a never-failing piece of amusement; namely, to take the child into the shop, when the number of new, bright-coloured articles was sure to beguile the little girl out of her fretfulness.

She was walking along the high terrace of the counter, kept steady by her mother's hand, when Mr.Dawson's market-cart once more stopped before the door.

But it was not Mrs.Brunton who alighted now; it was a very smartly-dressed, very pretty young lady, who put one dainty foot before the other with care, as if descending from such a primitive vehicle were a new occurrence in her life.

Then she looked up at the names above the shop-door, and after ascertaining that this was indeed the place she desired to find, she came in blushing.
'Is Mrs.Hepburn at home ?' she asked of Hester, whose position in the shop brought her forwards to receive the customers, while Sylvia drew Bella out of sight behind some great bales of red flannel.
'Can I see her ?' the sweet, south-country voice went on, still addressing Hester.