She had sat listlessly, hardly looking, and not counting, when--my eye being fixed on hers--I witnessed in its iris and pupil a startling transfiguration.
These sudden, dangerous natures--_sensitive_ as they are called--offer many a curious spectacle to those whom a cooler temperament has secured from participation in their angular vagaries.

The fixed and heavy gaze swum, trembled, then glittered in fire; the small, overcast brow cleared; the trivial and dejected features lit up; the sad countenance vanished, and in its place appeared a sudden eagerness, an intense expectancy.

"It _is_!" were her words.
Like a bird or a shaft, or any other swift thing, she was gone from the room, How she got the house-door open I cannot tell; probably it might be ajar; perhaps Warren was in the way and obeyed her behest, which would be impetuous enough.

I--watching calmly from the window--saw her, in her black frock and tiny braided apron (to pinafores she had an antipathy), dart half the length of the street; and, as I was on the point of turning, and quietly announcing to Mrs.Bretton that the child was run out mad, and ought instantly to be pursued, I saw her caught up, and rapt at once from my cool observation, and from the wondering stare of the passengers.

A gentleman had done this good turn, and now, covering her with his cloak, advanced to restore her to the house whence he had seen her issue.
I concluded he would leave her in a servant's charge and withdraw; but he entered: having tarried a little while below, he came up-stairs.
His reception immediately explained that he was known to Mrs.Bretton.
She recognised him; she greeted him, and yet she was fluttered, surprised, taken unawares.