Mona's face expressed the surprise she felt.
"I have been away from home," she said. "What did you want with me?"
"Away from home! Then you haven't told anybody yet?"
Mona began to think that one or other of them must be the victim of delusional insanity.
"Told anybody—what?"
Matilda frowned. If Miss Maclean had really noticed nothing, it was a pity she had gone out of her way to broach the subject, but she could not withdraw from it now.
"I thought you saw me—that day at St Rules."
"Oh!" said Mona, as the recollection came slowly back to her. "So I did,—but why do you wish me not to tell any one?"
Matilda blushed violently at the direct question, and proceeded to draw designs on the carpet of Castle Maclean with the end of her umbrella. She had intended to dispose of the matter in a few airy words; and she felt convinced still that she could have done so in her own house, or in Miss Simpson's shop, if she had chanced to see Miss Maclean alone in either place. But Mona looked so serenely and provokingly at home out here on the rocks, with the half-cut German book in her delicate white hands, that the whole affair began to assume a much more serious aspect.
Mona studied the crimson face attentively.