The desire to see Hetty had rushed back like an ill-stemmed current; he was amazed himself at the force with which this trivial fancy seemed to grasp him: he was even rather tremulous as he brushed his hair--pooh! it was riding in that break-neck way.

It was because he had made a serious affair of an idle matter, by thinking of it as if it were of any consequence.

He would amuse himself by seeing Hetty to-day, and get rid of the whole thing from his mind.

It was all Irwine's fault.

"If Irwine had said nothing, I shouldn't have thought half so much of Hetty as of Meg's lameness." However, it was just the sort of day for lolling in the Hermitage, and he would go and finish Dr.Moore's Zeluco there before dinner.