great dignity. "Do
you think that any slander would for a moment shake my faith in you--or
you? You don't deserve it, John, for you turn against me--you that I
thought were going to take my part; but do you think if all the people
in London set up one story that I would believe it against you? And how
should I against _him_?" she added, with an emphasis upon the word, as
expressing something immeasurably more to be loved and trusted than
either mother or cousin, by which, after having raised John up to a sort
of heaven of gratified affection, she let him down again to the ground
like a stone. Oh, yes! trusted in with perfect faith, nothing believed
against him, whom she had known all her life--but yet not to be mentioned
in the same breath with the ineffable trust she reposed in the man she
loved--whom she did not know at all. The first made John's countenance
beam with emotion and pleasure, the second brought a cold shade over his
face. For a moment he could scarcely speak.

"She bribes us," he said at last, forcing a smile. "She flatters us, but
only to let us drop again, Mrs. Dennistoun; it is as good as saying,
'What are we to _him_?'"

"They all do so," said the elder lady, calmly; "I am used to it."

"But, perhaps, I am not quite--used to it," said John, with something in
his voice which made them both look at him--Elinor only for a moment,
carelessly, before she swept away--Mrs. Dennistoun with a more warmly
awakened sensation, as if she had made some discovery. "Ah!" she said,
with a tone of pain. But Elinor did not wait for any further disclosures.
She waved her hand, and went off with her head high, carrying, as she
felt, the honours of war. They might plot, indeed, behind her back, and
try to invent some tribunal before which her future husband might be
arraigned; but John, at least, would say nothing to make things worse.
John would be true to her--he would not injure Phil Compton. Elinor,
perhaps, guessed a little of what John was thinking, and felt, though
she could scarcely have told how, that it would be a point of honour
with him not to betray her love.

He sat with Mrs. Dennistoun in partial silence for some time after
this. He felt as if he had been partially discovered--partially, and yet
more would be discovered than there was to discover; for if either of
them believed that he was in love with Elinor, they were mistaken, he
said to himself. He had been annoyed by her engagement, but he had neve