"That's a pity, Alfred."
"O, but he don't mind; he can afford it, and likes it. If you knew what a friend he is to me! And I shouldn't wonder if it was for Somebody's sake—why, how you are trembling, Lily!"
"You speak so warmly of this good friend, Alfred, that I am filled with joy--for your sake, my dear, that you have found such a friend. And yet I wonder, and cannot understand it."
She almost whispers these last words. She has been carried away by Alfred's enthusiasm. Certainly, Felix's kindness and gentle bearing had made a great impression upon her, and her thoughts dwelt much upon him. But it was only yesterday that she first saw him. It is all so strange. Only yesterday! But it seems longer; it seems to her as if she has known him for a long, long time.
"So now you can guess who it is, Lily, can't you?"
"I think I can, dear, and I am very, very glad! Glad to find he is as good and noble as I believed him to be when I first saw him."
"And it isn't so long ago that we first knew him!"
"No, indeed, Alf dear--but yesterday!"
"It might be yesterday. Why, it was only last Saturday night--just five days ago--that he saw you home from the Royal White Rose."
The little hand that was caressing his neck slowly withdraws itself, and the flush of colour, that the excitement of the conversation had brought to the cheeks, dies rapidly away. Her hands now lie idly in her lap, her face is colourless, her eyes are drooping to the ground. "You are speaking of"--she manages to say.