"Pardon! you perceive my mistake," he said, with a fitting smile. "I was under the impression that as interest or curiosity prompted you also to listen, you might be pleased to assist me."
She bit her lip now.
"How did you know that I was listening?" she demanded.
He smiled.
"I saw your ladyship approach; I saw you take up your position behind the tree, and I saw your face as they talked."
As she remembered all that that face must have told him, her heart throbbed with a wild longing to see him helpless at her feet; her face went a blood red, and her hands closed tightly on the shawl.
"Well, sir?" she said at last, after a pause, during which he had stood eying her under his lowered lids. "Granting that you are right in your surmises, how can I assist you, supposing that I choose to do so?"
He looked at her full in the face.
"By helping me to prevent the fulfillment of the engagement—betrothal, which you and I have just witnessed," he said, promptly and frankly.
She was silent a moment, her eyes looking beyond him as if she were considering, then she said: