“One more question:  is he married or single?”

“Single, to be sure—­a regular old bachelor, if ever there was one yet.”

During the whole time we had been speaking, Mrs. Sherwin had looked at us with far more earnestness and attention than I had ever seen her display before.  Even her languid faculties seemed susceptible of active curiosity on the subject of Mr. Mannion—­the more so, perhaps, from her very dislike of him.  Margaret had moved her chair into the background, while her father was talking; and was apparently little interested in the topic under discussion.  In the first interval of silence, she complained of headache, and asked leave to retire to her room.

After she left us, I took my departure:  for Mr. Sherwin evidently had nothing more to tell me about his clerk that was worth hearing.  On my way home, Mr. Mannion occupied no small share of my thoughts.  The idea of trying to penetrate the mystery connected with him was an idea that pleased me; there was a promise of future excitement in it of no ordinary kind.  I determined to have a little private conversation with Margaret about him; and to make her an ally in my new project.  If there really had been some romance connected with Mr. Mannion’s early life—­if that strange and striking face of his was indeed a sealed book which contained a secret story, what a triumph and a pleasure, if Margaret and I should succeed in discovering it together!

When I woke the next morning, I could hardly believe that this tradesman’s clerk had so interested my curiosity that he had actually shared my thoughts with my young wife, during the evening before.  And yet, when I next saw him, he produced exactly the same impression on me again.

III.

Some weeks passed away; Margaret and I resumed our usual employments and amusements; the life at North Villa ran on as smoothly and obscurely as usual—­and still I remained ignorant of Mr. Mannion’s history and Mr. Mannion’s character.  He came frequently to the house, in the evening; but was generally closeted with Mr. Sherwin, and seldom accepted his employer’s constant invitation to him to join the party in the drawing-room.  At those rare intervals when we did see him, his appearance and behaviour were exactly the same as on the night when I had met him for the first time; he spoke just as seldom, and resisted just as resolutely and respectfully the many attempts made on my part to lead him into conversation and familiarity.  If he had really been trying to excite my interest, he could not have succeeded more effectually.  I felt towards him much as a man feels in a labyrinth, when every fresh failure in gaining the centre, only produces fresh obstinacy in renewing the effort to arrive at it.

From Margaret I gained no sympathy for my newly-aroused curiosity.  She appeared, much to my surprise, to care little about Mr. Mannion; and always changed the conversation, if it related to him, whenever it depended upon her to continue the topic or not.