“So you think her ill-tempered?” he observed.
“I cannot exactly say ill-tempered; but I have already seen her in something very nearly approaching to a passion.”
“You!—where?”
“No matter. But she called me a fool, and stamped with her foot, until I ran away for very fright.”
“I dare say you had provoked her past endurance; and I have now had an opportunity of judging how shy and modest you are. Not that I mean to blame you for supporting Crescenz, as you did to-night, in the cloisters. You saved her, no doubt, from a severe fall, but you took very remarkable good care of her.”
“It was very natural that Crescenz should cling to me when she was frightened,” said Hamilton, seriously; “and equally natural that I should endeavour to protect her.”
“Oh, it was altogether extremely natural; only don’t talk any more nonsense about being shy. You were anything but shy at the foot of the staircase——”
“Were you there, too?”
“Not very distant from you, disguised as a rat.”
“If I had managed to hit you with the rake, all this scene would have been avoided.”