"Oh yes, yes."
"Because your mother has been learning English in order to be able to speak to you."
Again she placed her hand over her heart, and there was a look of pain on her face.
"My dearest, let us go! I can bear no more: my heart will break! See, am I not calm enough? Do I tremble?"
"No, you are very courageous," he said, looking at her doubtfully.
"Let us go!—let us go!"
Her entreaties overcame his scruples. The things she had thrown aside on coming in from her morning walk still lay there; she hastily put them on; and she herself led the way down-stairs. He put her into the hansom, and followed; the man drove off. She held her lover's hand tight, as a sign of her gratitude.
"Mind, I depend on you, Natalie," he said.
"Oh, do not fear," she said, rather wildly; "why should one fear? It seems to me all a strange sort of dream; and I shall waken out of it by-and-by, and go back to the house. Why should I be surprised to see her, when she is my constant companion? And do you think I shall not know what to say?—I have talked to her all my life."
But when they had reached the house, and were admitted, this half-hysterical courage had fled.