'The mystery which your lively imagination has associated with this place,' she said, 'means, being interpreted, that we are too poor to keep a gardener. Make the best of your disappointment, Mr. Linwood, and sit here by me. We are out of hearing and out of sight of mamma's other visitors. You have no excuse now for not telling me what has really kept you away from us.'
She fixed her eyes on him as she said those words. Before Percy could think of another excuse, her quick observation detected the disordered condition of his cravat, and discovered the upper edge of a black plaster attached to one side of his neck.
'You have been hurt in the neck!' she said. 'That is why you have kept away from us for the last three days!'
'A mere trifle,' he answered, in great confusion; 'please don't notice it.'
Her eyes, still resting on his face, assumed an expression of suspicious inquiry, which Percy was entirely at a loss to understand. Suddenly, she started to her feet, as if a new idea had occurred to her. 'Wait here,' she said, flushing with excitement, 'till I come back: I insist on it!'
Before Percy could ask for an explanation she had left the conservatory.
In a minute or two, Miss Bowmore returned, with a newspaper in her hand. 'Read that,' she said, pointing to a paragraph distinguished by a line drawn round it in ink.
The passage that she indicated contained an account of a duel which had recently taken place in the neighborhood of London. The names of the duelists were not mentioned. One was described as an officer, and the other as a civilian. They had quarreled at cards, and had fought with pistols. The civilian had had a narrow escape of his life. His antagonist's bullet had passed near enough to the side of his neck to tear the flesh, and had missed the vital parts, literally, by a hair's-breadth.
Charlotte's eyes, riveted on Percy, detected a sudden change of color in his face the moment he looked at the newspaper. That was enough for her. 'You
'I would risk it again,' said Percy, 'to hear you speak as if you set some value on it.'
She looked away from him without a word of reply. Her mind seemed to be busy again with its own thoughts. Did she meditate returning to the subject of the duel? Was she not satisfied with the discovery which she had just made?
No such doubts as these troubled the mind of Percy Linwood. Intoxicated by the charm of her presence, emboldened by her innocent betrayal of the interest that she felt in him, he opened his whole heart to her as unreservedly as if they had known each other from the days of their childhood. There was but one excuse for him. Charlotte was his first love.
'You don't know how completely you have become a part of my life, since we met at the ball,' he went on. 'That one delightful dance seemed, by some magic which I can't explain, to draw us together in a few minutes as if we had known each other for years. Oh, dear! I could make such a confession of what I felt—only I am afraid of offending you by speaking too soon. Women are so dreadfully difficult to understand. How is a man to know at what time it is considerate toward them to conceal his true feelings; and at what time it is equally considerate to express his true feelings? One doesn't know whether it is a matter of days or weeks or months—there ought to be a law to settle it. Dear Miss Charlotte, when a poor fellow loves you at first sight, as he has never loved any other woman, and when he is tormented by the fear that some other man may be preferred to him, can't you forgive him if he lets out the truth a little too soon?' He ventured, as he put that very downright question, to take her hand. 'It really isn't my fault,' he said, simply. 'My heart is so full of you I can talk of nothing else.'
To Percy's delight, the first experimental pressure of his hand, far from being resented, was softly returned. Charlotte looked at him again, with a new resolution in her face.
'I'll forgive you for talking nonsense, Mr. Linwood,' she said; 'and I will even permit you to come and see me again, on one condition—that you tell the whole truth about the duel. If you conceal the smallest circumstance, our acquaintance is at an end.'
'Haven't I owned everything already?' Percy inquired, in great perplexity. 'Did I say No, when you told me I was the man?'
'Could you say No, with that plaster on your neck?' was the ready rejoinder. 'I am determined to know more than the newspaper tells me. Will you declare, on your word of honor, that Captain Bervie had nothing to do with the duel? Can you look me in the face, and say that the real cause of the quarrel was a disagreement at cards? When you were talking with me just before I left the ball, how did you answer a gentleman who asked you to make one at the whist-table? You said, 'I don't play at cards.' Ah! You thought I had forgotten that? Don't kiss my hand! Trust me with the whole truth, or say good-by forever.'
'Only tell me what you wish to know, Miss Charlotte,' said Percy humbly. 'If you will put the questions, I will give the answers—as well as I can.'
On this understanding, Percy's evidence was extracted from him as follows:
'Was it Captain Bervie who quarreled with you?'
'Yes.'
'Was it about me?'
'Yes.'
'What did he say?'
'He said I had committed an impropriety in waltzing with you.'
'Why?'
'Because your parents disapproved of your waltzing in a public ballroom.'
'That's not true! What did he say next?'
'He said I had added tenfold to my offense, by waltzing with you in such a manner as to make you the subject of remark to the whole room.'
'Oh! did you let him say that?'
