"Yes, I see it," said John, looking down on Miss Demolines' little gold Geneva watch, with which he had already made sufficient acquaintance to know that it was worth nothing. "Shall I give it you?"
"No, Mr. Eames; let it remain there, that it may remind me, if it does not remind you, by how long a time you have broken your word."
"Upon my word I couldn't help it;—upon my honour I couldn't."
"Upon your honour, Mr. Eames!"
"I was obliged to go and see a friend who has just come to town from my part of the country."
"That is the friend, I suppose, of whom I have heard from Maria." It is to be feared that Conway Dalrymple had not been so guarded as he should have been in some of his conversations with Mrs. Dobbs Broughton, and that a word or two had escaped from him as to the love of John Eames for Lily Dale.
"I don't know what you may have heard," said Johnny, "but I was obliged to see these people before I left town. There is going to be a marriage and all that sort of thing."
"Who is going to be married?"
"One Captain Dale is going to be married to one Miss Dunstable."
"Oh! And as to one Miss Lily Dale,—is she to be married to anybody?"