“Intolerable!” he muttered between his teeth. “Is she always coming to bore you?”
“She has been very kind, and my great enlivenment,” said Ermine, “and she can’t be expected to know how little we want her. Oh, there, the danger is averted! She must have asked if you were here.”
“I was just thinking that she was the chief objection to Lady Temple’s kind wish of having you at Myrtlewood.”
“Does Lady Temple know?” asked Ermine, blushing.
“I could not keep it from one who has been so uniformly kind to me; but I desired her not to let it go further till I should hear your wishes.”
“Yes, she has a right to know,” said Ermine; “but please, not a word elsewhere.”
“And will you not come to stay with her?”
“I? Oh, no; I am fit for no place but this. You don’t half know how bad I am. When you have seen a little more of us, you will be quite convinced.”
“Well, at least, you give me leave to come here.”
“Leave? When it is a greater pleasure than I ever thought to have again; that is, while you understand that you said good-bye to the Ermine of Beauchamp Parsonage twelve years ago, and that the thing here is only a sort of ghost, most glad and grateful to be a friend—a sister.”