text:  To their surprise and amusement they now learned that the hated "spy" who had prowled round their folds and fields so long would resign to Mistress Bevan the house in which they sat and that atonement made vanish into thin air--_a vox et preterea nihil!_ being in reality the Proteus-like mysterious handsome though sallow stranger and no stranger sitting among them! We said that Mr Fitzarthur's conduct in espousing this long-unseen mistress of his fancy was not quite so extraordinary and wild as it appeared