'Don't scold me, Cherry; how was I to know you would not like it?'
'Felix! an old man like that!'
'Well, that's decisive,' said Felix, laughing at the tone; 'but, indeed, I did think you admired him very much.'
'So I do—but not in that way—not so as to bear to see him lower himself—and—and have to grieve him—' and the tears started from her eyes. 'But you know, he only could have done it because he saw a poor little lame thing and wanted to take care of her.'
'I think it goes a good deal deeper than that, Cherry.'
'I'm very sorry,' said Cherry. 'How very disagreeable it is that such things will happen; I thought, at any rate, that I was safe from them; and he was such an old man, and such a kind friend, that I was so proud of; and now I have vexed him so—and it is all over.'
'Do you really regret it? are you sure you did not speak only in the first surprise?'
'Felix! you! you to be against me!'
'Not against you, Chérie.'
She interrupted with a cry of pain. 'Oh! don't let anybody call me that till Edgar comes home again!'