"Why, I've thought of nothing else!"
I put out my hand to him, and he shook it as if he never meant to let it go.
"How good you are," he said warmly.
And I didn't dare look at Mr. van Buren, for the idea came to me that maybe he would not now believe what I had told him a little while ago.
* * * * * *
This morning I scolded Nell before our chaperon for her coldness to Jonkheer Brederode, when he had done so much for her.
"How could you," I asked, "when the poor fellow seemed so pleased to think you cared? It was cruel."
"I didn't want him to think I cared," Nell answered.
"Dear girl, you were quite right," said Lady MacNairne. Then she laughed. "He hoped to make our Phil jealous, I suppose, for his real thought seems to have been for her, doesn't it?"
Neither of us answered. I quite fancied last night that she had been wrong about those surmises of hers; but now, when she put it in this way, I wasn't so sure, after all.