If any one had told me beforehand, that I should suspend my ordinary evening’s occupation with my young wife, for the sake of observing the very man who had interrupted it, and that man only Mr. Sherwin’s clerk, I should have laughed at the idea.  Yet so it was.  Our books lay neglected on the table—­neglected by me, perhaps by Margaret too, for Mr. Mannion.

His conversation, on this occasion at least, baffled all curiosity as completely as his face.  I tried to lead him to talk.  He just answered me, and that was all; speaking with great respect of manner and phrase, very intelligibly, but very briefly.  Mr. Sherwin—­after referring to the business expedition on which he had been absent, for the purchase of silks at Lyons—­asked him some questions about France and the French, which evidently proceeded from the most ludicrous ignorance both of the country and the people.  Mr. Mannion just set him right; and did no more.  There was not the smallest inflection of sarcasm in his voice, not the slightest look of sarcasm in his eye, while he spoke.  When we talked among ourselves, he did not join in the conversation; but sat quietly waiting until he might be pointedly and personally addressed again.  At these times a suspicion crossed my mind that he might really be studying my character, as I was vainly trying to study his; and I often turned suddenly round on him, to see whether he was looking at me.  This was never the case.  His hard, chill grey eyes were not on me, and not on Margaret:  they rested most frequently on Mrs. Sherwin, who always shrank before them.

After staying little more than half an hour, he rose to go away.  While Mr. Sherwin was vainly pressing him to remain longer, I walked to the round table at the other end of the room, on which the book was placed that Margaret and I had intended to read during the evening.  I was standing by the table when he came to take leave of me.  He just glanced at the volume under my hand, and said in tones too low to be heard at the other end of the room: 

“I hope my arrival has not interrupted any occupation to-night, Sir.  Mr. Sherwin, aware of the interest I must feel in whatever concerns the family of an employer whom I have served for years, has informed me in confidence—­a confidence which I know how to respect and preserve—­of your marriage with his daughter, and of the peculiar circumstances under which the marriage has been contracted.  I may at least venture to congratulate the young lady on a change of life which must procure her happiness, having begun already by procuring the increase of her mental resources and pleasures.”  He bowed, and pointed to the book on the table.

“I believe, Mr. Mannion,” I said, “that you have been of great assistance in laying a foundation for the studies to which I presume you refer.”

“I endeavoured to make myself useful in that way, Sir, as in all others, when my employer desired it.”  He bowed again, as he said this; and then went out, followed by Mr. Sherwin, who held a short colloquy with him in the hall.