"One moment, Miss Marsh," said Hylda, also raising a hand to forbid him to move; "I want to tell you something—You are very anxious on poor Mr. Osborne's behalf, are you not?"
"I thought he was rich? You are not to say 'poor Mr. Osborne.'"
"Is that why you are so anxious, because he is rich?" and those golden-brown eyes suddenly blazed out outrageously.
"Driver, go on, please!" cried Rosalind again.
"Wait, cabman!" cried Hylda imperiously.... "Stay a little—Miss Marsh—one word—I cannot let you waste your sympathies as you do. You believe that Mr. Osborne is friendless; and you offer him your friendship——"
"I!"
Rosalind laughed a little, a laugh with a dangerous chuckle in it that might have carried a warning to one who knew her.
"Do you not say so in that letter? In it you tell him that since the night at the sun-dial, when you were 'brutal' to him——"
"You know, then, my letter—by heart?" said Rosalind, her eyes sparkling and cheeks aflame. "That is quite charming of you! You have been at the pains to read it?"
"No, of course, Mr. Osborne wouldn't exactly show it to me, nor did I ask him. But I think you guess that I am in Mr. Osborne's confidence."