“I was a little alarmed,” faltered Grey, who seemed agitated. “It sounded so very dreadful, Mr Chumbley,” she added, after a pause. “You have always been so kind and gentlemanly to me, may I ask a favour?”
“To be sure,” he replied.
She paused again, and he saw that she was growing more agitated, and that she could hardly speak.
“I want you to promise me—”
Here she stopped again, and looked piteously in his face, her lips refusing to frame the words she wished to say.
“You wish me to promise never to take notice of the secret you betrayed just now, Miss Stuart?”
She nodded quickly, and her eyes sought his in a pleading way that set him thinking of what her feelings must be for Hilton.
“Give me the credit of being a gentleman, Miss Stuart,” he said, at last, quietly.
“I do—I do!” she said, eagerly. “Indeed I do, Mr Chumbley!”
“I am an old friend of Captain Hilton. We knew one another when we were quite lads, and I exchanged into this regiment so that we might be together. He’s a very good fellow, is Hilton, although he has grown so hot-headed and liable to make mistakes. I like him for many reasons, and I can’t tell you how glad I am to have learned what I have to-day.”