"Why, don't you like him in return for his admiration?"
"He is a horrible man!" said Marian.
"Horrible, and why? What has he done to you? I am sure you are very ungrateful."
"Don't talk of it," said Marian, blushing furiously again, then recollecting that she might give rise to a suspicion that he had already said something to her, she added, "I don't—I don't mean anything about that nonsense."
"Well, but what do you mean? Is it really anything more than his being
Elliot's friend, and having dared to—."
"No, but Caroline, don't say anything about it; it was what I heard about him at the Marchmonts."
"O what?"
"It does not seem fair to tell how they talked over their guests, so don't repeat it again, pray."
"You seem to find it like having a tooth drawn. Well! I am sworn to secrecy. I won't tell a living creature."
"I am sure I know hardly anything, only that Lord Marchmont thinks very badly of him, and was quite sorry he had been asked to dinner. And he spoke of his having taken up Germanism, and oh! Caroline, for a man's faith to be unsettled is the worst of all, for then there is nothing to fall back upon."