‘I will forgive. Whisper, Cary.’

He bent his ear to her lips; still she would not, or could not, speak clearly to the point. Seeing that Moore waited, and resolved to hear something, she at last said:

‘Miss Keeldar spent a day at the Rectory about a week since. The evening came on very wintry, and we persuaded her to stay all night.’

‘And you and she curled your hair together.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘And then you chatted; and she told you—’

‘It was not at curling-hair time; so you are not as wise as you think; and, besides, she didn’t tell me.’

‘You slept together afterwards?’

‘We occupied the same room and bed. We did not sleep much; we talked the whole night through.’

‘I’ll be sworn you did! And then it all came out —tant pis. I would rather you had heard it from myself.’

‘You are quite wrong; she did not tell me what you suspect; she is not the person to proclaim such things; but yet I inferred one thing from parts of her discourse; I gathered more from rumour, and I made out the rest by instinct.’

‘But if she did not tell you that I wanted to marry her for the sake of her money, and that she refused me indignantly and scornfully (you need neither start nor blush; not yet need you prick your trembling fingers with your needle; that is the plain truth, whether you like it or not)—if such was not the subject of her august confidences, on what point did they turn? You say you talked the whole night through: what about?’

‘About things we never thoroughly discussed before, intimate friends as we have been; but you hardly expect I should tell you?’

‘Yes, yes, Cary—you will tell me; you said we were friends, and friends should always confide in each other.’

‘But you are sure you won’t repeat it?’

‘Quite sure.’

‘Not to Louis?’

‘Not even to Louis. What does Louis care for young ladies’ secrets?’

‘Robert—Shirley is a curious, magnanimous being.’

‘I dare say; I can imagine there are both odd points and grand points about her.’

‘I have found her chary in showing her feelings; but when they rush out, river-like, and pass full and powerful before you—almost without leave from her —you gaze, wonder, you admire, and—I think—love her.’

‘You saw this spectacle?’

‘Yes: at dead of night; when all the house was silent, and starlight, and the cold reflection from the snow glimmered in our chamber—then I saw Shirley’s heart.’