The handsome stranger held
him firmly at a distance. And not only on that day and evening, but
on the next day and the next. He was polite even to blandness, but
suffered no approach beyond the simplest formal intercourse. Every
morning he was seen going to Captain Allen's house, where he always
stayed several hours. The afternoons he spent, for the most part, in
his own room.
All this soon became noised throughout the town of S----, and there
was a little world of excitement, and all manner of conjectures, as
to who this Colonel Willoughby might be. The old nurse, of whom
mention has been made, presuming upon her professional acquaintance
with Mrs. Allen, took the liberty of calling in one afternoon, when,
to her certain knowledge, the stranger was in the house. She was,
however, disappointed in seeing him. The servant who admitted her
showed her into a small reception-room, on the opposite side of the
hall from the main parlor, and here Mrs. Allen met her. She was
"very sweet to her"--to use her own words--sweet, and kind, and
gentle as ever. But she looked paler than usual, and did not seem to
be at ease.
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