She had not even received an answer.

She was becoming frightened and anxious.

_Was he secretly married ?_ She wished she had thought of that possibility before she posted the letter.
Many simple-minded men of disengaged affections, cheerfully pursuing their virtuous avocations, would be thunderstruck if they knew the dark suspicions harboured against them in spinster bosoms, that they are concealing some discreditable matrimonial secret, which alone can account for their--well--their _extraordinary_ behaviour in not coming forward! It has actually been said that real life is not always like a novel.
This feebly false assertion was disproved forever in Aunt Aggie's mind by the sight of a dog-cart coming rapidly toward her from the direction of Lostford.

She glanced indifferently at it as it approached, and then her pale eyes became glued to it.

In the dog-cart sat Everard Constable, now Lord Lossiemouth.