 find out, I like her dearly. She's such fun! She never
shilly-shallies, like you. She's not an old maid like your Cousin Anne
that you are always talking of. Come along! if anybody else finds out
who he is before we do," cried Janey, with almost despairing energy, "I
shall break my heart!"

Ursula stoically resisted the tug upon her, but she went back to Grange
Lane, to which, indeed, she had turned her face before they met the
stranger, and she could not help seeing the tall black figure in front
of her which Janey watched so eagerly. Ursula was not eager, but she
could not help seeing him. He walked up the street quickly, not as if he
thought himself of interest to any one, but when he had got half way up
Grange Lane, crossed to speak to somebody. This filled Janey with
consternation.

"He is not such a stranger after all," she cried. "He knows some one. He
will not be quite a discovery. Who is it he is talking to, I wonder? He
is standing at one of the doors, but it is not Miss Humphreys, nor Miss
Griffiths, nor any of the Charters. Perhaps she is a stranger too. If he
is married he won't be half so interesting, for there are always plenty
of ladies. Perhaps he has just come by the railway to spend the day--but
then there is nothing to see in Carlingford, and how did he know that
man at the lots? Oh, Ursula, why don't you answer me? why don't you say
something? have you no feeling? I am sure it don't matter a bit to me,
for I am not out; I am never asked to parties--but I take an interest
for you other girls' sake."

Before this time, however, Ursula had found a new object of interest.
She had not been quite so unmoved as Janey supposed. A new gentleman was
a thing to awaken anybody who knew Carlingford, for, indeed, gentlemen
were scarce in the society of the little town, and even at the most mild
of tea-parties it is ludicrous to see one man (and that most likely a
curate) among a dozen ladies--so that even when she appeared to Janey to
wonder, she felt that her sister's curiosity was not unjustifiable. But