After a few commonplace remarks, he asked: 

“When is Mr. Murray coming home?”

“I have no idea.  Even his mother is ignorant of his plans.”

“How long has he been absent?”

“Four years to-day.”

“Indeed! so long?  Where is he?”

“I believe his last letter was written at Edfu, and he said nothing about returning.”

“What do you think of his singular character?”

“I know almost nothing about him, as I was too young when I saw him to form an estimate of him.”

“Do you not correspond?”

Edna looked up with unfeigned astonishment, and could not avoid smiling at the inquiry.

“Certainly not.”

A short silence followed, and then Mr. Leigh said: 

“Do you not frequently ride on horseback?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Will you permit me to accompany you to-morrow afternoon?”

“I have promised to make a visit with Mr. Hammond.”

“To-morrow morning then, before breakfast?”

She hesitated—­the blush deepened, and after a brief struggle, she said hurriedly: 

“Please excuse me, Mr. Leigh; I prefer to ride alone.”

He bowed, and was silent for a minute, but she saw a smile lurking about the corners of his handsome mouth, threatening to run riot over his features.

“By the by, Miss Edna, I am coming to-night, to ask your assistance in a Chaldee quandary.  For several days I have been engaged in a controversy with Mr. Hammond on the old battlefield of ethnology, and, in order to establish my position of diversity of origin, have been comparing the Septuagint with some passages from the Talmud.  I heard you say that there was a Rabbinical Targum in the library at Le Bocage, and I must beg you to examine it for me, and ascertain whether it contains any comments on the first chapter of Genesis.  Somewhere in my most desultory reading I have seen it stated that in some of those early Targums was the declaration, that ’God originally created men red, white and black.’  Mr. Hammond is charitable enough to say that I must have smoked an extra cigar, and dreamed the predicate I am so anxious to authenticate.  Will you oblige me by searching for the passage?”

“Certainly, Mr. Leigh, with great pleasure; though perhaps you would prefer to take the book and look through it yourself?  My knowledge of Chaldee is very limited.”

“Pardon me! my mental vis inertiae vetoes the bare suggestion.  I study by proxy whether an opportunity offers, for laziness is the only hereditary taint in the Leigh blood.”

“As I am very much interested in this ethnological question, I shall enter into the search with great eagerness.”

“Thank you.  Do you take the unity or diversity side of the discussion?”

Her merry laugh rang out through the forest that bordered the road.

“Oh, Mr. Leigh! what a ridiculous question!  I do not presume to take any side, for I do not pretend to understand or appreciate all the arguments advanced; but I am anxious to acquaint myself with the bearings of the controversy.  The idea of my ‘taking sides’ on a subject which gray-haired savants have spent their laborious lives in striving to elucidate seems extremely ludicrous.”