'Scriptural—but rather uncomfortable,' said Falconer, smiling, as he assumed a pen.
'Your days have not been days of trouble surely?' said Miss Montgomerie to him softly.
'My past days have not been without it,' replied Falconer, as a shade crossed his handsome face.
'And your future?'
'Heaven alone knows that—it depends upon another—not myself,' said he, with a brief soft glance that made her colour deepen and her eyelids droop, while he wrote his autograph immediately under that of Sir Piers, whose natal day was also the 5th—dedicated to the memory of Guy Fawkes and Inkermann.
'Cecil!' said Annabelle; 'such a pretty name it is—was it your father's name too?'
'No—I am named from my mother, in a way; her name was Cecilia.'
'How strange?'
'There is nothing strange in it at all,' rejoined Falconer gravely, and Mary could perceive that he coloured almost painfully, and the subject was instantly changed by her; yet it impressed her so much, that she mentioned the incident to her confidante and constant guide, old Mrs. Garth.
'Named from his mother, and he has never been known to mention his father,' thought Mrs. Garth; 'there is some painful mystery here—and all mysteries are decidedly unpleasant! I must endeavour to arrest the progress of this affair, for the sake of both, ere it is too late! But how to do it, with sufficient tact and delicacy?'