“Do you know the county of Cheshire, Captain Hepburn?”
“Not at all—do you?”
“Not yet, but I expect hereafter to get pretty well acquainted with it. It is there my future home is situated, and, of course, the place excites some curiosity in my mind.”
“Your future home!” repeated he, a little surprised.
“Yes, did you not know? I thought Hilary might have told you,” replied she.
“I had heard that Miss Fielding had done one of my countrymen the honor of promising to take his name and adopt his nation!” he answered, in a sort of tone which, however, implied a dissatisfied or uncertain mind.
“Then why are you surprised at my mentioning it? perhaps that shocks British prejudices; but with us a betrothal is not a secret! Was that what astonished you?”
“No, to say the truth, it was at discovering a mistake of
mine. I had fancied ‘the Ferns’ had been the future home which you had selected,” was his reply.
“Oh!” said Victoria, coloring and laughing, “that was your guess, was it? I wonder at your want of penetration. If this had been my future home, I should not have been visiting here now, and you must have seen—oh, by the way, Charles was not here before, so you have not seen any thing. But Hilary did not tell you that, did she?”