"Miss Melcombe!" he exclaimed.
"Yes," she answered, in a low voice. "It is an island that he is going to then. I always thought I should not mind marrying him if he would go to a desert island. And so he loved me, really and truly?"
"It appears that he did, some time ago" said Brandon, rather pointedly.
"Does any one else know," Laura asked, "but you?"
"Yes; John Mortimer does."
Laura blushed deeply.
"Joseph told him first about this affair, but did not divulge the lady's name. After all was settled, he acknowledged to us both that you were the lady. John was very glad that I was willing personally to give the letters into your own hands again."
"I suppose he thought I had been very imprudent?"
Brandon recalled the scene. John had in fact expressed himself to that effect in no measured terms; but he had been pleasant and even cordial to Joseph, partly because the young man declared the thing to be quite over, partly because he did him the justice to remember that such an acquaintance must always have been begun by the woman. It could not possibly be Joe's doing that he had corresponded with Laura Melcombe.
Laura repeated her words.