I must have an hour's quiet talk with you," he continued, turning to Isabel, "or I shall be in too bad a temper to receive my guests with common politeness.

The worry of giving this party is not to be told in words.

I almost wish I had been content with presenting you to my mother, and had let the rest of my acquaintances go to the devil." A quiet half hour passed; and the first visitor, a stranger to the servants, appeared at the cottage-gate.

He was a middle-aged man, and he had no wish to disturb Mr.Hardyman.

"I will wait in the grounds," he said, "and trouble nobody." The middle-aged man, who expressed himself in these modest terms, was Robert Moody.
Five minutes later, a carriage drove up to the gate.