 smiled and shook her head; she made no distinct reply.

"Poor fellow, I suppose he has been 'plucked,' as the gentlemen call
it, or 'ploughed,' does your brother say? University slang is very
droll. He has not taken his degree, I suppose, and they want him to work
before going up again. I am sorry for your father, too, for I don't
think it will be very easy to get anything into Clarence Copperhead's
mind. But there is no harm at all in him, and he used to be very nice to
his mother. Mamma and I liked him for that; he was always very nice to
his mother."

"Will you come in and have some tea?" said Ursula. "Do, please. I hope,
now that I have met you again, you will not refuse me. I was afraid you
had gone away, or something--"

Ursula, however, could not help looking guilty as she spoke, and Phoebe
perceived at once that there had been some reason for the two or three
days disappearance of the girls from Grange Lane.

"You must tell me first," she said, with a smile, "whether you know who
I am. If you ask me after that, I shall come. I am old Mr. Tozer's
granddaughter, who had a shop in the High Street. My uncle has a shop
there now. I do not like it myself," said Phoebe, with the masterly
candour that distinguished her, "and no one else can be expected to like
it. If you did not know--"

"Oh, we heard directly," cried Janey; "Mrs. Sam Hurst told us. She came
shrieking, 'Who is she?' before your back was turned that day; for she
wondered to see you with old Tozer--"

"Janey!" cried Ursula, with horror. "Of course we know; and please will
you come? Every new person in Carlingford gets talked over, and if an
angel were to walk about, Mrs. Sam Hurst would never rest till she had
found out where he came from."

"And, perhaps, whether he had a broken feather in his wing," said Phoebe.
"I am very glad you don't mind. It will be very pleasant to come. I will
run in and tell them, and then I will join you. Grandmamma is an
invalid, and would like to know where I am."

And the news made a considerable flutter in the dim r