"Why, Jinny has brown eyes and Tilly blue!" What he did not know, and what Polly did not confess to him, was that much of her merriment arose from sheer lightness of heart .-- She, silly goose that she was! who had once believed Jinny to be the picked object of his attentions.
But she grew serious again: could he tell her, please, why Mr.Smith wrote so seldom to Tilly?
Poor Tilly was unhappy at his long silences--fretted over them in bed at night.
Mahony made excuses for Purdy, urging his unsettled mode of life.

But it pleased him to see that Polly took sides with her friend, and loyally espoused her cause.
No, there had not been a single jarring note in all their intercourse; each moment had made the dear girl dearer to him.

Now, worse luck, forty odd miles were between them again.
It had been agreed that he should call at her brother's private house, towards five o'clock in the afternoon.

He had thus to kill time for the better part of the next day.

His first visit was to a jeweller's in Great Collins Street.