“Mrs. Houston, I have no explanation to make!”
The little lady flushed and bit her lip.
Margaret continued her needlework.
“Then I am to understand, Miss Helmstedt, that you consider it quite proper for a young lady to spend two or three hours alone in the woods with a soldier, who is not of her kindred?”
Margaret might have replied with truth, “No, Mrs. Houston, I do not consider that at all proper,” but she chose, on the contrary, to remain silent.
“And you doubtless think, besides, that an affianced bride owes no consideration to her betrothed husband.”
“So far from that, I feel that she owes the same as if the church and the state had already blessed and confirmed the engagement,” answered Margaret.
“Which, in your case, it will never do, unless certain suspicious acts of yours are satisfactorily explained.”
“Mrs. Houston, I do not understand you,” said Margaret, flushing deeply.
“You do not seem to know that the honor of Ralph is committed to your keeping!”