Anxious to quell the storm, of which he little knew himself to be the cause, the young engineer endeavored to turn the conversation, and in order to do so, he asked a question which had been trembling on his lips from the very first.
"Your friend, Miss Leslie," he said; "the star of your farewell assembly—you often see her, I suppose, Miss Horton?"
Gilbert Margrave little knew that this very question only added fuel to the fire already raging in the breast of the impetuous girl.
"I have never seen Cora Leslie since our arrival in New Orleans," she answered, coldly.
"Indeed! But I thought you such intimate friends. Miss Leslie—she is not ill, I hope?"
His evident anxiety about Cora terribly irritated Adelaide Horton.
"That question I cannot answer. I know nothing whatever of Miss Leslie; for I repeat, we have not met since we reached America."
"May I ask why this is so, Miss Horton?"
"Because Cora Leslie is no fit associate for the daughter of Edward Horton."
The blood rushed in a crimson torrent to the face of the young engineer. He started from his seat as if he had been shot.