“Neither can I. But then I know more about him than your ladyship does, and I am miserable for my mistress.”
It stung Clementina as if her heart had taken a beat backward. But her voice was steadier than it had yet been as she returned—
“Why should you be miserable for Lady Lossie?”
“I would die rather than see her marry that wretch,” he answered.
Again her blood stung her in the left side.
“You do not want her to marry, then?” she said.
“I do,” answered Malcolm, emphatically, “but not that fellow.”
“Whom then, if I may ask?” ventured Clementina, trembling.
But Malcolm was silent. He did not feel it would be right to say. Clementina turned sick at heart.
“I have heard there is something dangerous about the moonlight,” she said. “I think it does not suit me to-night. I will go—home.”