Katherine nodded, although she had had her doubts until this minute.
Maurice was agreeably conscious of Belle's eyes as he talked to Rosalind. He was not at all unwilling to have the distinction of being the only one to know the new-comer.
"I read the story," he said. "I did not know till after you had gone that it was one of Shakespeare's plays. We read Julius Caesar at school last winter."
"I know that too," Rosalind answered. I have Lamb's stories. Cousin Louis used to read them to me, and then from the real plays, but I like the story of the Forest best."
"Dear me! they are talking about Shakespeare," Belle exclaimed.
Rosalind looked across the room at her, and smiled in a way that seemed an invitation.
"It is a little funny for her to sit down beside a boy the first thing, don't you think?" Charlotte said in a low tone to Katherine, who assented because she was in the habit of agreeing with Charlotte.
Belle overheard. "Silly!" she said, and to show her scorn she went over and sat on an arm of the sofa beside Rosalind.
"Do you like to read?" she asked.
Rosalind opened her eyes. "Of course I do, don't you?"