Barnet stood within a window-niche which had as yet received no frame, and thence looked down a slope into the road.

The wheels of a chaise were heard, and then his handsome Xantippe, in the company of Mrs.
Downe, drove past on their way to the shore.

They were driving slowly; there was a pleasing light in Mrs.Downe's face, which seemed faintly to reflect itself upon the countenance of her companion--that politesse du coeur which was so natural to her having possibly begun already to work results.

But whatever the situation, Barnet resolved not to interfere, or do anything to hazard the promise of the day.

He might well afford to trust the issue to another when he could never direct it but to ill himself.