“You shall not, my dear friend—my sister, let me call you, for I have none of my own. I promise you that it shall never be.”
She shook her head sadly, and heaved a deep sigh.
“I thank you, but I fear your efforts will prove unavailing. I thank you, too, for giving me the sweet name of sister. You forget that I am the daughter of the man whom you say has wronged you deeply, do you not?”
“I do forget it, as I trust you yourself do. For no such brute has a right to claim so pure a being for his child.”
She smiled archly as she replied:
“Silence, flatterer, though your words are very sweet to me, and I am only too proud to regard you by so dear a tie.”
“Do you never feel lonely here with no companions of your own age and sex?” asked Robert, eager to turn her thoughts into a different channel.
“Oh, no! I have plenty of company. Come and you shall see.”
She bounded lightly from her seat, and moving quickly to a curtain of purple velvet, and sweeping it aside, revealed a glass door.
She motioned Robert to conceal himself among the folds of the drapery and glance within the room beyond.