"A finger ?" "I mean--let me help." "Oh!" breathed the old man thoughtfully and without meeting his eyes.
Mitchy, as if with more to say, watched him an instant, then before speaking caught himself up.

"Look out--here he comes." Hearing the stir of the door by which he had entered he looked round; but it opened at first only to admit Vanderbank's servant.

"Miss Brookenham!" the man announced; on which the two gentlemen in the room were--audibly, almost violently--precipitated into a union of surprise.
II However she might have been discussed Nanda was not one to shrink, for, though she drew up an instant on failing to find in the room the person whose invitation she had obeyed, she advanced the next moment as if either of the gentlemen before her would answer as well.

"How do you do, Mr.Mitchy?
How do you do, Mr.Longdon ?" She made no difference for them, speaking to the elder, whom she had not yet seen, as if they were already acquainted.

There was moreover in the air of that personage at this juncture little to invite such a confidence: he appeared to have been startled, in the oddest manner, into stillness and, holding out no hand to meet her, only stared rather stiffly and without a smile.