A Terrible Secret: A Novel

by May Agnes Fleming

"I walked in the grounds."

"Edith!" with sudden sharpness, "did you see Sir Victor?"

"Yes, I saw Sir Victor."

"Where? In the grounds too?"

"In the grounds too—smoking a cigar."

"Edith!" the sharpness changing to suspicion and alarm. "You were with Sir Victor!"

"I was with Sir Victor. That is to say, Sir Victor was with me."

"Bother! What did you talk about? Did he ask after me?"

"Ye-e-es," Edith answered doubtfully—the fact being Sir Victor had utterly forgotten Miss Stuart's existence in the dizzy rapture of his acceptance—"he asked for you, of course."

"Was that all? He's a pretty attentive host, I don't think," cried Trixy, with bitterness, "having a young lady laid up by the le—the ankle in his house, and never so much as calling to see if she is dead or alive!"