“I assure you,” said the Colonel, touched by Rachel’s appalled look, “I don’t know how long this cautious person would have kept me in the dark if she had not betrayed herself in the paper we discussed the first day I met you.”
“The ‘Traveller,’” said Rachel, her eyes widening like those of a child. “She is the ‘Invalid’!”
“There, I am glad to have made a clean breast of it,” said Ermine.
“The ‘Invalid’!” repeated Rachel. “It is as bad as the Victoria Cross.”
“There is a compliment, Ermine, for which you should make your bow,” said Colin.
“Oh, I did not mean that,” said Rachel; “but that it was as great a mistake as I made about Captain Keith, when I told him his own story, and denied his being the hero, till I actually saw his cross,” and she spoke with a genuine simplicity that almost looked like humour, ending with, “I wonder why I am fated to make such mistakes!”
“Preconceived notions,” said Ermine, smiling; “your theory suffices you, and you don’t see small indications.”
“There may be something in that,” said Rachel, thoughtfully, “it accounts for Grace always seeing things faster than I did.”
“Did Mr.—, your philanthropist, bring you this today?” said the Colonel, taking up the paper again, as if to point a practical moral to her confession of misjudgments.
“Mr. Mauleverer? Yes; I came down as soon as he had left me, only calling first upon Fanny. I am very anxious for contributions. If you would only give me a paper signed by the ‘Invalid,’ it would be a fortune to the institution.”