"I do not think I can. I do not think I ought. You never heard of—Mr John Gordon."
"Never."
"He used to come to our house at Norwich, and—and—I loved him."
"What became of him?" he asked, in a strangely altered voice. Was there to be a Mr Compas here too to interfere with his happiness?
"He was poor, and he went away when my step-mother did not like him."
"You had engaged yourself to him?"
"Oh, no! There had been nothing of that kind. You will understand that I should not speak to you on such a subject, were it not that I am bound to tell you my whole heart. But you will never repeat what you now hear."
"There was no engagement?"
"There was no question of any such thing."
"And he is gone?"