“May I learn his name?”
“No!”
“Nor his daughter's—the Christian name, I mean.”
“To what end? It would be a mere idle curiosity, for I should exact a pledge of your never divulging it.”
“Of course,” said Linton, carelessly. “It was, as you say, a mere idle wish. Was this a love affair, then, for it has a most commercial air?”
“I really don't know that; I fancy that they were both very young, and very ignorant of what they were pledging, and just as indifferent to the consequences.”
“She was handsome, this—”
“Maritaña is beautiful, they say,” said Hoare, who inadvertently let slip the name he had refused to divulge.
Linton's quick ear caught it at once, but as rapidly affected not to notice it, as he said,—
“But I really do not see as yet how this affects what we were just speaking of?”