There was a moment's pause, during which the lovers exchanged tender glances, and Constance appeared preoccupied.
"Who is Atherton Legh?" she inquired, at length. "I begin to feel interested about him."
"I would rather you didn't ask me the question," replied Jemmy. "I can't answer it very readily. However, I will tell you all I know about him."
And he proceeded to relate such particulars of the young man's history as the reader is already acquainted with.
Constance listened with great interest.
"It appears, then, from what you say, that he is dependent upon a guardian whom he has never seen, and of whose very name he is ignorant."
"That is so," replied Jemmy. "But I am convinced he is a gentleman born."
"The mystery attaching to his birth does not lessen my interest in him," said Constance.
"I should be surprised if it did," observed Monica. "You can give him any rank you please. I am sorry to disturb your romantic ideas respecting him, but you must recollect he has been an apprentice to a Manchester merchant, and has only just served his time."
"His career now may be wholly changed, and he may never embark in trade," said Constance. "But if he were to do so I cannot see that he would be degraded, any more than he is degraded by having been an apprentice."