By-and-by the door from the stable- yard into the shrubbery clicked and opened, and in a moment she saw Mr.
Wilkins moving through the bushes; but not alone, Mr.Dunster was with him, and the two were talking together in rather excited tones, immediately lost to hearing, however, as they entered Mr.Wilkins's study by the outer door.
"They have been dining together somewhere.

Probably at Mr.Hanbury's" (the Hamley brewer), thought Ellinor.

"But how provoking that he should have come home with papa this night of all nights!" Two or three times before Mr.Dunster had called on Mr.Wilkins in the evening, as Ellinor knew; but she was not quite aware of the reason for such late visits, and had never put together the two facts--( as cause and consequence)--that on such occasions her father had been absent from the office all day, and that there might be necessary business for him to transact, the urgency of which was the motive for Mr.Dunster's visits.
Mr.Wilkins always seemed to be annoyed by his coming at so late an hour, and spoke of it, resenting the intrusion upon his leisure; and Ellinor, without consideration, adopted her father's mode of speaking and thinking on the subject, and was rather more angry than he was whenever the obnoxious partner came on business in the evening.

This night was, of all nights, the most ill-purposed time (so Ellinor thought) for a _tete-a- tete_ with her father! However, there was no doubt in her mind as to what she had to do.

So late as it was, the unwelcome visitor could not stop long; and then she would go down and have her little confidence with her father, and beg him to see Mr.Livingstone when he came next morning, and dismiss him as gently as might be.
She sat on in the window-seat; dreaming waking dreams of future happiness.