d not been entitled
so to regard himself. There she sat, looking at him, waiting for his
answer; and he who had been so sure that he had committed no sin
against her, had not a word to say to her.

"I want your answer to that, Lord Silverbridge. I have told you that
I would have no skeleton in the cupboard. Down at Matching, and
before that at Killancodlem, I appealed to you, asking you to take me
as your wife."

"Hardly that."

"Altogether that! I will have nothing denied that I have done,--nor
will I be ashamed of anything. I did do so,--even after this
infatuation. I thought then that one so volatile might perhaps fly
back again."

"I shall not do that," said he, frowning at her.

"You need trouble yourself with no assurance, my friend. Let us
understand each other now. I am not now supposing that you can fly
back again. You have found your perch, and you must settle on it like
a good domestic barn-door fowl." Again he scowled. If she were too
hard upon him he would certainly turn upon her. "No; you will not fly
back again now;--but was I, or was I not, justified when you came to
Killancodlem in thinking that my lover had come there?"

"How can I tell? It is my own justification I am thinking of."

"I see all that. But we cannot both be justified. Did you mean
me to suppose that you were speaking to me words in earnest when
there,--sitting in that very spot,--you spoke to me of your love."

"Did I speak of my love?"

"Did you speak of your love! And now, Silverbridge,--for if there
be an English gentleman on earth I think that you are one,--as a
gentleman tell me this. Did you not even tell your father that I
should be your wife? I know you did."

"Did he tell you?"

"Men such as you and he, who cannot even lie with your eyelids, who
will not condescend to cover up a secret by a moment of feigned
inanimation, have many voices. He did tell me; but he broke no
confidence. He told me, but did not mean to tell me. Now you also
have told me."

"I did. I told him so. And then I changed my mind."

"I know you changed your mind. Men often do. A pinker pink, a
whiter white,--a finger that will press you just half an ounce the
closer,--a cheek that will consent to let itself come just a little
nearer--!"

"No; no; no!" It was because Isabel had not easily consented to such
approaches!

"Trifles such as these will do it;--and some such trifles have done
it with you. It would be beneath me to make compariso