They were talking together in a pleasant, familiar way, when I came down stairs from my visit to the sick child--the mother had not shown sufficient interest in the little sufferer to attend me to the nurse's room.

A word or two of almost careless inquiry was made;--I had scarcely answered the mother's queries, when her friend said, in a laughing way, looking from the window at the same time, "There, Delia! see what you escaped." I turned my eyes in the same direction, and saw Mr.Wallingford walking past, on the opposite side of the street, with his head bent down.

His step was slow, but firm, and his air and carriage manly.
Delia shrugged her shoulders, and drew up the corners of her lips.

There was an expression very much like contempt on her face .-- But she did not make any reply.

I saw this expression gradually fade away, and her countenance grow sober.