Visitors at Collingwood and Visitors at Brier Hill

The morning came at last on which Arthur was expected, but as he
did not appear, Grace gave him up until the morrow, and toward the
middle of the afternoon ordered out her carriage, and drove slowly
in the direction of Collingwood. Alighting before the broad
piazza, and ascending the marble steps, she was asked by Richard's
confidential servant into the parlor, where she sat waiting
anxiously while he went, in quest of his master.

"A lady, sir, wishes to see you in the parlor," and Victor Dupres
bowed low before Richard, awaiting his commands.

"A lady, Victor? Did she give her name?"

"Yes, sir; Atherton--Mrs. Grace Atherton, an old friend, she
said," Victor replied, marveling at the expression of his master's
face, which indicated anything but pleasure.

He had expected her--had rather anticipated her coming; but now
that she was there, he shrank from the interview. It could only
result in sorrow, for Grace was not to him now what she once had
been. He could value her, perhaps, as a friend, but Edith's tale
had told him that he to her was more than a friend. Possibly this
knowledge was not as distasteful to him as he fancied it to be; at
all events, when he remembered it, he said to Victor: "Is the lady handsome?" feeling a glow of satisfaction in the
praises heaped upon the really beautiful Grace. Ere long the hard
expression left his face, and straightening up his manly form, he
bade Victor take him to her.