The rich glow overflowed her cheeks once more.
"I have no sweetheart. I love my Hero, because he is truly noble and sagacious; because he loves me, and because he is mine—all mine."
"Truly satisfactory and sufficient reasons. I might ask how he came into your possession; but probably you shrink from divulging your little secret, and I am unwilling to force your confidence."
She looked curiously into his face, but the handsome mouth and chin might have been chiselled in stone for any visible alteration in their fixed stern expression, and his piercing black eyes seemed diving into hers through microscopic glasses.
"At least, Regina, I venture the hope that he came properly and honestly into your heart and hands?"
"I hope so too, because you gave him to me."
"I?"
"Yes, sir. You know perfectly well that you sent him to me."
"I sent you a dog? When? Is he black, brown, striped, or spotted?"
"Snow-white, and you know as well as I do that you asked Mr. Lindsay to bring him to me soon after you left me at V——."