No sleep visited the eyes of Agnes that night; and when she appeared in the breakfast room the following morning, her pale and haggard countenance showed marks of extreme suffering, which should have been respected even by the Misses Fairland. But no! their quick ears had also caught the tones of the guitar, and rushing to a window on that side of the house, in the expectation of a serenade, they had seen Agnes as she crossed the lawn, and returned again to the house. Here was food for conjecture, and jealousy for the suspicious ladies, and they had long been awaiting the arrival of Agnes in the breakfast room, hoping to have the mystery cleared up.
“May we be informed, Miss Elwyn,” began Miss Calista, “how long you have been in the habit of receiving signals from lovers, and stealing out at night to give them clandestine meetings in the grove?”
A bright blush suffused the cheek of Agnes, which died away immediately, leaving it of an ashy paleness, as she said:
“I have met no lover in the grove, Calista, at least not what you mean by a lover,” she added, thinking this might be an evasion, for did not her brother love her dearly?
“Not what I call a lover,” said Miss Calista; “a very nice distinction! then you do not deny that you met what you call a lover in the grove. Indeed you need trouble yourself to make no denial, for Evelina and I both watched you.”
Agnes rose from the table, and all who were gathered around it were amazed at the unusual vehemence of her manner, as with an expression of intense wretchedness upon her face, she exclaimed:
“Oh! do, do let me alone! do leave me in quiet; for I am very, very unhappy!”
And hastily, and with great agitation, Agnes left the room.
Mr. Fairland, who was so much interested in a paragraph in the paper, which appeared to shock him exceedingly, that he had not heard the ill-natured remarks of his daughters, looked up just as Agnes rose from the table, and heard her agonized address.
With more sternness than usual, he asked his daughters what they had been saying to Agnes, and on hearing their account of the conversation, he exclaimed: