"Is it a secret, Mr. Thorn?" said Mrs. Decatur.
"If you have not heard, perhaps it is as well not to mention names too soon; if it comes out, it will be all over directly; possibly the family may hush it up, and, in that case, the less said the better; but those have it in hand that will not let it slip through their fingers."
Mrs. Decatur turned away, saying, "How shocking such things were!" and Thorn, with a smile which did not, however, light up his face, said
"You may be off, Charlton, with no concern for the bright eyes you leave behind you; I will endeavour to atone for my negligence elsewhere, by my mindfulness of them."
"Don't excuse you," said Charlton; but his eye catching at the moment another attraction opposite in the form of man or woman, instead of quitting the room, he leisurely crossed it to speak to the new-comer; and Thorn, with an entire change of look and manner, pressed forward, and offered his arm to Fleda, who was looking perfectly white. If his words had needed any commentary, it was given by his eye as it met hers, in speaking the last sentence to Mrs. Decatur. No one was near whom she knew, and Mr. Thorn led her out to a little back room where the gentlemen had thrown off their cloaks, where the air was fresher, and placing her on a seat, stood waiting before her till she could speak to him.
"What do you mean, Mr. Thorn?" Fleda looked as much as said, when she could meet his face.
"I may rather ask you what you mean, Miss Fleda," he answered, gravely.
Fleda drew breath painfully.
"I mean nothing," she said, lowering her head again; "I have done nothing."
"Did you think I meant nothing when I agreed to do all you wished?"