First Period Chapter 2 The Man She Refused

Mountjoy had decided on travelling to Honeybuzzard, as soon as he heard
that Miss Henley was staying with strangers in that town. Having had no
earlier opportunity of preparing her to see him, he had considerately
written to her from the inn, in preference to presenting himself
unexpectedly at the doctor's house. How would she receive the devoted
friend, whose proposal of marriage she had refused for the second time,
when they had last met in London?

The doctor's place of residence, situated in a solitary by-street,
commanded a view, not perhaps encouraging to a gentleman who followed
the medical profession: it was a view of the churchyard. The door was
opened by a woman-servant, who looked suspiciously at the stranger.
Without waiting to be questioned, she said her master was out. Mountjoy
mentioned his name, and asked for Miss Henley.

The servant's manner altered at once for the better; she showed him
into a small drawing-room, scantily and cheaply furnished. Some
poorly-framed prints on the walls (a little out of place perhaps in a
doctor's house) represented portraits of famous actresses, who had been
queens of the stage in the early part of the present century. The few
books, too, collected on a little shelf above the chimney-piece, were
in every case specimens of dramatic literature. "Who reads these
plays?" Mountjoy asked himself. "And how did Iris find her way into
this house?"

While he was thinking of her, Miss Henley entered the room.