"Oh! I little expected this!" faltered Miss Patty, in real grief; "I little thought of this. Why did you not speak sooner to some one - to me, for instance - and have spared yourself this misery? If you had been earlier made acquainted with Frederick's attachment, you might then have checked your own. I did not ever dream of this!" And Miss Patty, who had turned pale, and trembled with agitation, could not restrain a tear.
"It is very kind of you thus to feel for me!" said Verdant; "and all I ask is, that you will still remain my friend."
"Indeed, I will. And I am sure Kitty will always wish to be the same. She will be sadly grieved to hear of this; for, I can assure you that she had no suspicion you were attached to her."
"Attached to HER!" cried Verdant, with vast surprise. "What ever do you mean?"
"Have you not been telling me of your secret love for her?" answered Miss Patty, who again turned her thoughts to the champagne.
"Love for her? No! nothing of the kind."
"What! and not spoken about your grief when I told you that Frederick Delaval had proposed to her, and had been accepted?"
"Proposed to her?" cried Verdant, in a kind of dreamy swoon.
"Yes! to whom else do you suppose he would propose?"
"To you!"