"No," he said; "I must have seen you, yourself! I can't——"
The sentence was dreamily discontinued, and the girls began to chatter upon other subjects, while Lowell and Pyne maintained an uncomfortable silence.
"It is so delicious to be here!" Edith cried joyfully, "only it will be for such a short time. Mamma insists that I shall spend part of the visit with Evelyn Chandler. I ought to be pleased, I suppose, but I can't. I should not say it before Lynde, but I don't half like her."
If his life had depended upon it, Lowell could not have prevented himself from raising his eyes to those dark, compelling ones before him. They were fixed curiously upon his face. A slow color surged into the pink cheeks and the eyes of the boy were lowered.
An excitement that he could not control leaped into Lynde's eyes.
"Why should you not say that before Mr. Pyne?" questioned Miss Pryor. "If rumor is correct his engagement with Miss Chandler is at an end."
Lowell held his breath, waiting for the answer.
Not a movement was lost upon Pyne.
"Then rumor does not speak correctly!" snapped Miss Pyne. "I wish to Heaven it did. The engagement was broken by some kind of row between Mr. Chandler and Lynde at the time those robberies were committed, but Evelyn would not have it. She made her father straighten matters out, and Lynde was hooked again, and will be landed in January. You see, the fish is about tired out, and the fisher-woman will soon be triumphant."