“Now I see why I couldn’t amuse you at dinner. It was because I can’t talk about shuttlecocks!”
She colored, but made no answer, except by a mischievous smile as she raised her eyes to his face. Harry came out from behind his curtain.
“Will you come and have a game at billiards, Miss Lane? I’ll teach you.”
“I can play a little; but I musn’t now, thank you. I must go back to the Vicarage.”
“How anxious you are to get away from us!” said George.
“Oh, indeed, it is not that! I haven’t been so happy for, oh, I don’t know how long, as I have been here to-day!”
“Then why are you in such a hurry to get away?”
“I am not in a hurry; it is because I must go,” said she, the almost child-like gayety quite gone out of her voice, which remained sweet, but low and grave; “besides, I—I ought not to have enjoyed myself so much. I had forgotten.”
“Forgotten what?” said George, kindly.
“To-day—my confirmation. It was wrong, very wrong of me! Such an example for my pupil Betty, too!”