"Before I answer I should like to know whether you are engaged to marry
him," said Mr. Vivian.

"Certainly not. I never dreamt of such a thing. You ought not to ask
such a question," said Kitty, turning scarlet.

"I suppose I ought not. I beg your pardon. But I thought it was the
case."

"Why should you think so?" said Kitty, turning her face away from him.
"You would have heard about it, you know--and besides--nobody ever
thought of such a thing."

"Excuse me: Mr. Luttrell seems to have thought of it," said Rupert, with
rather an angry laugh.

"What Mr. Luttrell thinks of is no business of yours," said Kitty.

"You cannot deny it then!" exclaimed Vivian, with a mixture of
bitterness and sarcastic triumph in his tone.

She made no answer. He could not see her face, but the way in which she
was twisting her fingers together spoke of some agitation. He tried to
master himself; but he was under the empire of an emotion of which he
himself had not exactly grasped the meaning nor estimated the power. He
walked to the window and back again somewhat uncertainly; then paused at
about two yards' distance from her kneeling figure, and addressed her in
a voice which he kept carefully free from any trace of excitement.

"I have no right to speak, I know," he said, "and, if I were not so much
older than yourself, or if I had not promised to be your friend, Kitty,
I would keep silence. I want you to be on your guard with that man. He
is not the sort of man that you ought to encourage, or whom you would
find any happiness in loving."

"I thought it was not considered generous for one man to blacken
another's character behind his back," said Kitty, quickly.

"Well, you are right, it is not. If I had put myself into rivalry with
Hugo Luttrell, of course, I should have to hold my tongue. But as I am
only an outsider--an old friend who takes a kindly interest in the child
that he has seen grow up--I think I am justified in saying, Kitty, that
I do not consider young Luttrell worthy of you."

The calm, unimpassioned tones produced their usual effect on poor Kitty.
She felt thoroughly crushed. And yet there was a rising anger in her
heart. What reason had Rupert Vivian to hold himself so far aloof from
her? Was he not Percival's friend? Why should he look down from such
heights of superiority upon Percival's sister?

"I speak to you in this way," Rupert went on, with studied quietness,
"because you have less of the guardianshi