"That, doubtless, you will have much to say to each other. Permit me; for I am perhaps de trop," interrupted the other, twirling a moustache, and looking somewhat cloudy; "but I shall hope to see you ere the trumpets announce supper;" and with a smiling bow he resigned Sybil to Audley's proffered arm, and retired with a good grace to join another group.
"Sybil," said Audley, after a half-minute's pause, during which he had been surveying her with fond and loving eyes, "by what singular incidence of the stars are we blessed by meeting thus!"
"You may well ask, if such you feel it to be," she replied calmly, and her voice made his heart vibrate as she spoke; "yet it is simple and prosaic enough. I am here solely by the influence of misfortune."
"Misfortune?"
"Yes."
"Oh, explain."
"When poor mamma died, what was left for me but to eat the bread of dependence?—and I am a dependent now."
"Sybil!"
"I came to India as that which you find me."
"And that is——"