"Oh!" I replied, quite startled, "that would be too bad."
"So it would; but I fear it. Captain Craik has been very peculiar of late."
I felt uncomfortable. It was not to end with Captain Craik we had travelled over the slow ground of this ambiguous discourse.
"Now do you know." resumed Mrs. Langton, "I cannot help fancying that Bertha has been indulging in the same little pastime with you and her brother."
"Not with me," I said, eagerly; "she never even hinted it."
"You are slow at taking hints," replied Mrs. Langton with a sceptical smile.
"But why should she think of me?" I asked, incredulously; "I am not a beauty," I added, looking at her, "I have no wealth—no position. Why should she wish to marry me to her brother?"
"To make a good sister-in-law," answered Mrs. Langton, quietly.
I felt there was something in that, and remained mute with consternation.
"And do you think," she resumed, laughing softly, "he has been quite so slow to take the hint? Why, child, you have scarcely said a word that he has not modestly converted into a proof of your passion for him. Remember how sympathising he was on the evening of the party; he thought: 'Poor little thing! I must be kind. It is plain she is fretting herself away for my sake.'"