CHAPTER THE SEVENTEENTH.
A LONG HALF-HOUR.
I dared not dally another moment. I must take my plunge at once into the icy-cold waters.
"I have something of importance to say to you, dear cousin," I began.
"So have I," she said, gayly; "a thousand things, as I told you this morning, sir, though you are so late in coming to hear them. See, I have been making a list of a few commissions for you to do in London. They are such as I can trust to you; but for plate, and glass, and china, I think we had better wait till we return from Switzerland. We are sure to come home through London."
Her eyes ran over a paper she was holding in her hand; while I stood opposite to her, not knowing what to do with myself, and feeling the guiltiest wretch alive.
"Cannot you find a seat?" she asked, after a short silence.
I sat down on the broad window-sill instead of on the chair close to hers. She looked up at that, and fixed her eyes upon me keenly. I had often quailed before Julia's gaze as a boy, but never as I did now.