Do _no_ birds ever listen?
Distracted for a moment from my own miseries, by the noise of their soft yet sharp hubbub, I am thinking this, when a knock comes at the door, and the next moment Barbara enters.

Her blond hair is tumbled about her shoulders; no white rose's cheeks are paler than hers; in her hand she has a note.

In a moment I have dismissed the maid, and we are alone.
"I want you to read this!" she says, in an even and monotonous voice, from which, by an effort whose greatness I can dimly guess, she keeps all sound of trembling.
I have risen and turned from the glass; but now my knees shake under me so much that I have to sit down again.

She comes behind me, so that I may no longer see her: and putting her arms round my neck, and hiding her face in my unfinished hair, says, whisperingly: "Do not fret about it, Nancy!--I do not mind much." Then she breaks into quiet tears.
"Do you mean to say that he has had the _insolence_ to write to you," I cry, in a passion of indignation, forgetting for the moment Barbara's ignorance of what has occurred, and only reminded of it by the look of wonder that, as I turn on my chair to face her, I see come into her eyes.
"Have not you been expecting him every day to write to me ?" she asks, with a little wonder in her tone; "but _read_!" (pointing to the note, and laughing with a touch of bitterness), "you will soon see that there is no _insolence_ here." I had quite as lief, in my present state of mind, touch a yard-long wriggling ground-worm, or a fat wood-louse, as paper that his fingers have pressed; but I overcome my repulsion, and unfold the note.
"DEAR MISS GREY: "Can I do any thing for you in town?
I am going up there to-morrow, and shall thence, I think, run over to the Exhibition.

I have no doubt that it is just like all the others; but _not_ to have seen it will set one at a disadvantage with one's fellows.