“You might have thought it very impertinent of me talking of things I had no business with,” said Nelly, with downcast eyes.
“Impertinent! Perhaps you suppose I would think an angel impertinent if it came down from heaven for a moment, and showed a little interest in my concerns?” said Hugh. “And do you really think you have no business with me, Nelly? I did not think you were so indifferent to your friends.”
“To be sure we are very old friends,” said Nelly, with a blush and a smile; but she saw by instinct that such talk was dangerous. And then she put on her steady little face and looked up at him to put an end to all this nonsense.—“I want so much to hear about dear Mrs. Ochterlony,” she said.
“And I have never told you that it had come all right,” said Hugh. “I was so busy at first I had no time for writing letters; and last night there was Aunt Agatha, who knows nothing about it; and this morning—well this morning you know, I was thinking of nothing but you——”
“Oh, thank you,” said Nelly, with a little confusion, “but tell me more, please. You said it was all right——”
“Yes,” said Hugh, “but I don’t know if it ever would have come right but for your letter; I was down as low as ever a man could be; I had no heart for anything; I did not know what to think even about my—— about anything. And then your dear little letter came. It was that that made me something of a man again. And I made up my mind to face it and not to give in. And then all at once the proof came—some people who lived at Gretna and had seen the marriage. Did you go there?”
“No,” said Nelly, with a tremulous voice; and now whatever might come of it, it would have been quite impossible for her to raise her eyes.
“Ah, I see,” said Hugh, “it was only to show me what to do—but all the same it was your doing. If you had not written to me like that, I was more likely to have gone and hanged myself, than to have minded my business and seen the people. Nelly, I will always say it was you.”
“No—no,” said Nelly, withdrawing, not without some difficulty, her hand out of his. “Never mind me; I am so glad—I am so very glad; but then I don’t know about dear Mrs. Ochterlony—and oh, poor Will!”
His brother’s name made Hugh fall back a little. He had very nearly forgotten everything just then except Nelly herself. But when he remembered that his brother, perhaps, might be dying——