"Oh, Hubert, I suppose?"
"No," said Enid, blushing and holding down her head—"not Hubert."
Miss Vane put up her gold-rimmed eye-glasses, and inspected her for a minute or two.
"You look as if you had been worried out of your life!" she said. "You are as thin as a thread-paper! Well, you will not be worried here, my child. You can stay as long as you like, and tell me everything or nothing, as you please. One thing I will say—I suppose Flossy is at the bottom of it all?"
"Yes, aunt Leo."
"That accounts for everything. Flossy never could be trusted. Did she want you to be engaged to Hubert?"
"I think so—at first. Now I do not know."
"I suppose they badgered you into it?" said Miss Vane thoughtfully. "Are you going on with it?"—in her usual abrupt tone.
"With the engagement, aunt Leo? Oh, no!"
"Come—that's a good thing!" said aunt Leo briskly. "For I don't think Hubert is quite worthy of you, my dear. He has disappointed me rather. Well, I won't bother you with any more questions, especially as I have a visitor coming at ten o'clock—a young parson from the country who has written to request an interview. There's the bell—I suppose he has arrived. Begging, I expect! I told Hodges——Why, he's showing the man in here! Hodges——"