The young man, with his hat in his hand, still looked at her, smiling and smiling.

It was very strange.
"Will you kindly tell me," said the mysterious visitor, at last, "whether I have the honor of speaking to Miss Went-worth ?" "My name is Gertrude Wentworth," murmured the young woman.
"Then--then--I have the honor--the pleasure--of being your cousin." The young man had so much the character of an apparition that this announcement seemed to complete his unreality.

"What cousin?
Who are you ?" said Gertrude.
He stepped back a few paces and looked up at the house; then glanced round him at the garden and the distant view.

After this he burst out laughing.

"I see it must seem to you very strange," he said.