Oh dear! oh dear! who is that knocking at the hall door?
Daisy, run and peep from behind the curtain, and let me know." Daisy started off on the instant, and returned in a moment with the intelligence that Mr.Danesfield, the manager of the bank, was standing on the steps, and that his face was very red.
On hearing this intelligence poor Miss Martineau's face also became suffused with a deep flush, and she pushed her poke bonnet a little backward in her excitement.

An awful idea had suddenly darted through her brain.
Perhaps Mr.Danesfield had called to announce some misfortune.

Perhaps the two hundred pounds was lost; perhaps there was no balance at the bank! When the good gentleman was ushered into the room she glanced at him mysteriously, and even while he was shaking hands with Jasmine and Daisy, began letting fall short, but mysterious sentences-- "Mrs.Ellsworthy has called--_much_ pleased--inclined to take them up.
They are to spend to-morrow at Shortlands." Mr.Danesfield raised his eyebrows, pulled Daisy to stand between his knees; and, staring at Miss Martineau over his gold-rimmed glasses, said-- "Eh! eh!--Shortlands--Ellsworthy's--worthy folk!" here he laughed, pleased with his pun; "yes, Miss Martineau, a good opportunity, undoubtedly!" At this moment Primrose came into the room, and Miss Martineau, judging that she might best serve her cause by retiring from the scene of action, went away.
Mr.Danesfield did not pay a long visit.

He had known the Mainwarings, although not very intimately, for years.

He was a good-hearted, kind, and very busy man, and during their mother's lifetime he had taken but little notice of the girls.
To-day, however, he seemed to regard them with fresh interest.