"It is, Mr. Ames; and I trust that your inquiry implies no reflection on Hezekiah's judgment."
"Quite the reverse, Miss Hollister. It is not going too far to say that I have formed a high opinion of Miss Hezekiah, and that I should deal harshly with any one who ventured to criticise her in any particular."
"Will you kindly inform me just when you made the acquaintance of my younger niece? I should greatly dislike to believe you guilty of dissimulation, but when Hezekiah was mentioned in the gun-room last night your silence led me to assume that she was wholly unknown to you."
"She was, I assure you, at the dinner-hour last night; but I met her quite by chance this afternoon, in an orchard at no great distance from this house."
I did not think it necessary to mention the Asolando, as Hezekiah herself had taken pains to avoid her aunt in the tea room. It was clear that my words had interested Miss Octavia. She paused in the hall, and bent her head in thought for a moment.
"May I inquire whether she referred in any way to Mr. Wiggins in this interview?"
"She did, Miss Hollister," I replied; and I could not help smiling as I remembered Hezekiah's laughter at the mention of my friend. My smile did not escape Miss Octavia.
"Just how, may I ask, did she refer to Mr. Wiggins?"
"As though she thought him the funniest of human beings. She laughed deliciously at the bare mention of his name."
"It was not your impression, then, that she was deeply enamored of him; that she was eating her heart out for him?"