"I believe—I have heard"—said Eleanor, "that he is going away from England. He is going a missionary to some very far away region." She was quite willing Mr. Carlisle should understand this.
"Just as well," he answered. "If he would not come into his right place, such a man would only work to draw other persons out of theirs. There is a sort of popular power of speech which wins with the common and uneducated mind. I saw it won upon you, Nellie; how was that?"
The light tone, in which a smile seemed but half concealed, disconcerted Eleanor. She was not ashamed, she thought she was not, but she did not know how to answer.
"You are a little tête-montée," he said. "If I had been a little nearer to you to-night, I would have saved you from taking one step; but I did not fancy that you could be so suddenly wrought upon. Pray how happened you to be in that place to-night?'
"I told you," said Eleanor after some hesitation, "that I had an unsatisfied wish of heart which made me uneasy—and you would not believe me."
"If you knew how this man could speak, I do not wonder at your wanting to hear him. Did you ever hear him before?"
"Yes," said Eleanor, feeling that she was getting in a wrong position before her questioner. "I have heard him once—I wanted to hear him again."
"Why did you not tell me your wish, that you might gratify it safely,
Eleanor?"
"I supposed—if I did—I should lose my chance of gratifying it at all."
"You are a real tête-montée," he said, standing now before her and taking hold lightly and caressingly of Eleanor's chin as he spoke. "It was well nobody saw you to-night but me. Does my little wife think she can safely gratify many of her wishes without her husband's knowledge?"