“And what would Miss Dale say?”
“Allow me to assure you that such opinions as
I may choose to express of my friends will be my own
opinions, and not depend on those of any one else.”
“And you think, then, that you are not bound
to be enslaved as yet? How many more months of
such freedom are you to enjoy?”
Crosbie remained silent for a minute before he answered,
and then he spoke in a serious voice. “Lady
Alexandrina,” said he, “I would beg from
you a great favour.”
“What is the favour, Mr Crosbie?”
“I am quite in earnest. Will you be good
enough, kind enough, enough my friend, not to connect
my name again with that of Miss Dale while I am here?”
“Has there been a quarrel?”
“No; there has been no quarrel. I cannot
explain to you now why I make this request; but to
you I will explain it before I go.”
“Explain it to me!”
“I have regarded you as more than an acquaintance,—as
a friend. In days now past there were moments
when I was almost rash enough to hope that I might
have said even more than that. I confess that
I had no warrant for such hopes, but I believe that
I may still look on you as a friend?”
“Oh, yes, certainly,” said Alexandrina,
in a very low voice, and with a certain amount of
tenderness in her tone. “I have always regarded
you as a friend.”
“And therefore I venture to make the request.
The subject is not one on which I can speak openly,
without regret, at the present moment. But to
you, at least, I promise that I will explain it all
before I leave Courcy.”
He at any rate succeeded in mystifying Lady Alexandrina.
“I don’t believe he is engaged a bit,”
she said to Lady Amelia Gazebee that night.
“Nonsense, my dear. Lady Julia wouldn’t
speak of it in that certain way if she didn’t
know. Of course he doesn’t wish to have
it talked about.”
“If ever he has been engaged to her, he has
broken it off again,” said Lady Alexandrina.
“I dare say he will, my dear, if you give him
encouragement,” said the married sister, with
great sisterly good-nature.
Lily Dale’s First Love-Letter
Crosbie was rather proud of himself when he went to
bed. He had succeeded in baffling the charge
made against him, without saying anything as to which
his conscience need condemn him. So, at least,
he then told himself. The impression left by what
he had said would be that there had been some question
of an engagement between him and Lilian Dale, but
that nothing at this moment was absolutely fixed.
But in the morning his conscience was not quite so
clear. What would Lily think and say if she knew
it all? Could he dare to tell her, or to tell
any one the real state of his mind?
