Heavens! how my heart beat at the sight of this beautiful being, as she stood there, palpitating between shame and anxiety! She was beautiful; and I knew instantly that I loved her better than anything else on earth.
"Mr. Chittenden's hat?" I continued, as lucid as a trained parrot and in tones not wholly dissimilar.
"Can't you say anything more than that?"—impatiently.
How much more easily a woman recovers her poise than a man, especially when that man gives himself over as tamely as I did!
"Was it your letter he was seeking?" I cried, all eagerness and excitement as this one sane thought entered my head.
"Did he tell you that there was a letter in it?"—scornfully.
"Yes,"—guiltily. Heaven only knows why I should have had any sense of guilt.
"Give it to me at once,"—imperatively.
"The hat or the letter?" Truly, I did not know what I was about. Only one thing was plain to my confused mind, and that was the knowledge that I wanted to put my arms around her and carry her far, far away from Toddy-One-Boy.