Fleda's shocked start and change of countenance was seen by more eyes than one pair. Thorn's fell, and a shade crossed his countenance, too, for an instant, that Fleda's vision was too dazzled to see. Mr. Carleton moved away.
"Why are you going to Queechy?" said Charlton, astonished.
His friend was silent a moment, perhaps for want of power to speak. Fleda dared not look at him.
"It is not impossible unless this lady forbid me. I am not a fixture."
"But what brought you here, man, to offer your services?" said Charlton; "most ungallantly leaving so many pairs of bright eyes to shine upon your absence."
"Mr. Thorn will not find himself in darkness here, Captain
Rossitur," said Mrs. Decatur.
"It's my opinion he ought, Ma'am," said Charlton.
"It is my opinion every man ought, who makes his dependance on gleams of sunshine," said Mr. Thorn, rather cynically. "I cannot say I was thinking of brightness, before or behind me."
"I should think not," said Charlton; "you don't look as if you had seen any in a good while."
"A light goes out every now and then," said Thorn; "and it takes one's eyes some time to get accustomed to it. What a singular world we live in, Mrs. Decatur!"