“You could not suppose me guilty of such imprudence, Miss Courtenay!” said he, in an offended manner.
“No matter what I suppose, Sir. I want you to tell me that my name was not uttered during your interview.”
“Not by me—certainly not by me!” said he, timidly.
“Was it by him, Sir? Answer me that!”
“Well, I rather think that he did say that I had been deputed by you to convey the message to him.”
“What insolence! And how did you reply?”
“I observed that I was not there exactly for the purpose of a cross-examination; that in my capacity as a friendly adviser, I declined all interrogation.”
“Fiddle faddle, Sir. It would have been far more to the purpose to have said, ‘Miss Courtenay has nothing whatever to do with this communication.’ I really feel ashamed to think I should play the prompter to a professor in subtleties; but I still think that your ingenuity might have hit upon a reason for his going, without any reference to us, or to our wishes. Did it never occur to you, for instance, that the arrival of Sir Within Wardle might offer a convenient plea?”
“Indeed! I might have mentioned that,” said he, in some confusion. “The house does not admit of much accommodation for strangers, and an additional room would be of consequence just now.”
“I think, Sir,” said she, haughtily, “you might have put the matter in a better light than by making it a domestic question. This young man might have been brought to see that the gentleman who was so ungratefully treated—I might say, so shamefully treated—by his near relative, could not be the pleasantest person for him to meet in a narrow family circle.”