"Oh, no; but a lady who sat near us fainted just as I was standing by her."
"And, of course, as a sort of mother-general of the sorrowing, you stopped to comfort her?"
"Yes; but a few drops of water sufficed. She knew all the time I was in danger of spoiling her bonnet."
"I am glad she snubbed you. You are too innocent to be matched against so perfect an actress."
Then he changed the conversation, and Mrs. Le Grande was not mentioned again that day. I noticed, however, that he partook very sparingly of dinner; and, in the hour or two which he usually spent on the Sabbath with us in the drawing-room, he was unusually silent. I went to the library for a book, leaving him and Mrs. Flaxman alone, and returned just in time to interrupt, a second time, a conversation clearly not intended for my ears.
"Yes. She was at church this morning, looking as wickedly beautiful as ever," he was saying, as if in answer to Mrs. Flaxman's question.
When the church bells began ringing that evening, a strong desire seized me to claim the fulfillment of his promise to accompany me to the Beech Street Church. He may have read it in my face.
"Are you going to take me out again to-night?"
"Do you wish to go?" I asked, with girlish eagerness.
"I have told you before it is not polite to reply to a question by asking another."