“That evening?” he said, holding her closer. “Shall I ever forget the look that came into your eyes when you opened them, and saw me; or the way your hand clung to mine! Till then I had thought my case to be hopeless. But you begged me not to leave you! Had Prinny not been standing at my elbow I must have thrown every consideration of honour to the winds, and spoken then! But his being there compelled me to remain silent, and by the time he was gone all the impropriety of speaking to you while I was still your guardian had been recollected. I had come, moreover, straight from delivering Peregrine into my captain’s hands! I shall not allow the evils of your situation to have been comparable to mine!”
“There was a constraint,” she agreed. “I was sensible of it even when you forgave me for my conduct at Cuckfield. It was not until you knocked my cousin down that I dared to entertain the notion that your affection had re-animated towards me. But your expression then! No mere indignation at my cousin’s villainy, I was persuaded, could have brought that look into your face! I thought you were going to kill him!”
“I had momentarily forgotten your presence. You must forgive me for having given way to impulse.”
“Oh,” said Miss Taverner archly, “there can be no need for apology when you consider how much I am in the habit of staying in towns where a prize-fight is to take place! To own the truth, I had not the least objection to seeing you knock my cousin down. I would have liked to have done it myself. And until then, you know, I had never suspected that you could knock a man down.”
“Never suspected that I could knock a man down?” repeated the Earl, a good deal surprised.
“No, how should I? I was used to think you were just a dandy. But Captain Audley once said you had the most punishing left imaginable, and although I did not know what he meant at the time, it occurred to me when you hit my cousin that frightful blow that perhaps that was it. For you did use your left hand, did you not?”
“Yes,” said the Earl gravely. “I expect I did.”
“You were so quick too!” said Miss Taverner admiringly. “I quite thought my cousin would have borne you backwards through the window, for he rushed on you with such fury! But I daresay you have been in the habit of boxing a little.”
“Yes,” said the Earl again. His lips quivered. “I think I may be said to have been in the habit of boxing a little.”
“You are laughing at me!” said Miss Taverner suspiciously.