“You were under the care of Lady Alcombe?”
There was an accent of surprise in the young man’s voice, which the girl was quick to note.
“You know her?” she asked quickly. “You are surprised that I should have been under her chaperonage?”
“Yes,” he admitted frankly. “I know Lady Alcombe, and I know her set. It is a fast and exclusive one. I am a little surprised that any one should have selected her to chaperone a young girl.”
“My father did not understand,” was the quick reply. “He had known Lady Alcombe before her marriage, and she was a distant relation of ours. He did not know the set to which she belonged, and it was perhaps natural that he should have looked to her to watch over me.... For myself, I was young, I had no experience, and though there were things that I did not understand, things that shocked me, I did not mention them to my father, or indeed to any one.”
“And Lady Alcombe approved of my cousin Dick?”
“She did. She laughed at my scruples, and urged me to accept him, declaring that my father would be only too ready to see me the wife of a man who would some day be the Squire of Harrow Fell. But I did not yield—then. I knew there was plenty of time, and as my father was expecting to visit England a few months later, I said that I would wait until he arrived.”
“And afterwards?” asked the corporal.
“Afterwards!” A tragic look came on the girl’s face, and to his surprise she broke again into tears.