'Miss Thorn, Nell here wants to know the name of the book you were studying so deeply this afternoon in the corn-field?'
My cheeks flushed a little; for one moment I hesitated, and every one seemed to be waiting for my answer; then I said in a tolerably steady voice,
'It was my Bible.'
I felt, rather than saw, the astonishment depicted on the faces of those at the table.
Nelly, who was always overflowing with fun, burst out laughing:
'You don't mean to say that you are religious?' she said; but her mother hushed her rather sharply, and changed the subject at once.
I felt I had difficult times coming. Later on in the evening, when music was going on, Captain Gates came over to me as I sat looking out into the dusky garden by one of the long French windows, and said,
'I see you have no difficulty in showing your colours, Miss Thorn.'
I looked up at him gravely. 'I ought to have no difficulty,' I said; 'it is nothing to be ashamed of.'
He smiled, and leaning against the half-open window seemed to regard me with some amusement.