“Oh, he told you so, did he? Did he tell you all that passed?”
“No, Mary, he never told me that he had been here, neither did he tell me what had passed; but I happen to know all.”
“I cannot understand that.”
“Still, it is true; and I think, on the whole, you behaved pretty well, although I cannot understand why you gave him a kiss at parting.”
“Good heaven! where were you? You must have been in the room. And you heard every word that passed?”
“Every word,” replied I.
“Well,” said Mary, “I could not have believed that you could have done so mean a thing.”
“Mary, rather accuse your own imprudence; what I heard was to be heard by everyone in the street as well as by me. If you choose to have love scenes in a room not eight feet from the ground, with the window wide open, you must not be surprised at every passer-by hearing what you say.”
“Well, that’s true. I never thought of the window being open; not that I would have cared if all the world had heard me, if you had not.”
It never occurred to me till then why Mary was annoyed at my having overheard her, but at once I recollected what she had said about me. I made no answer. Mary sat down, leaned her forehead against her hands, and was also silent. I, therefore, took my candle and retired. It appeared that Mary’s pride was much mortified at my having heard her confession of being partial to me—a confession which certainly made very little impression on me, as I considered that she might, a month afterwards, confess the same relative to Tom, or any other individual who took her fancy; but in this I did not do her justice. Her manners were afterwards much changed towards me; she always appeared to avoid, rather than to seek, further intimacy. As for myself, I continued, as before, very good friends, kind towards her, but nothing more. The next morning I was up at Mr Turnbull’s by the time agreed upon, but before I set off rather a singular occurrence took place. I had just finished cleaning my boat, and had resumed my jacket, when a dark man, from some foreign country, came to the hard with a bundle under his arm.