said Caroline.
'Do you want to know yourself, Caroline?' said Elliot; 'shall I tell you?'
'Yes, do,' said Caroline, in her curiosity, forgetting that Marian might be pained.
'Ah! you ought to be warned if you want to set your cap at him, for she has forestalled you. Let me see, what was it he said? O, that Lady Marchmont would scarcely be alone in her glory long, for, for such as liked the style of thing, her cousin was as perfect a piece of carving in white marble as he ever had seen.'
White marble was certainly not the comparison for Marian's cheeks at that moment; it was pain and horror to her even to hear that she had been spoken of between Elliot and Mr. Faulkner, and to be told it in this manner, in public, was perfectly dreadful. She could neither sink under the table nor run away, so with crimson face and neck, she kept her post on the sofa, and every one saw she was intensely annoyed. Elliot, who had told it in a mischief-making spirit, fancying he should make his sister jealous, walked away, amusing himself with the notion that he had sown the dragon's teeth; Caroline was very sorry to have caused such painful blushes, yet was proud to hear of Marian's being admired; and Mrs. Lyddell said not a word, but worked on with a jerk at her thread, trying to persuade herself that she was not vexed that, as Elliot said, her daughter had been forestalled.
Marian did not recover herself sufficiently to say one word about Mr. Faulkner till she was in her own room, and then when Caroline came, to pity her for her blushes, and apologize for having occasioned them, she said, 'O! how I wish he was not coming!'
'Why, don't you like him in return for his admiration?'
'He is a horrible man!' said Marian.
'Horrible, and why? What has he done to you? I am sure you are very ungrateful.'
'Don't talk of it,' said Marian, blushing furiously again, then recollecting that she might give rise to a suspicion that he had already said something to her, she added, 'I don't--I don't mean anything about that nonsense.'
'Well, but what do you mean? Is it really anything more than his being Elliot's friend, and having dared to--.'
'No, but Caroline, don't say anything about it; it was what I heard about him at the Marchmonts.'
'O what?'
'It does not seem fair to tell how they talked over their guests, so don't repeat it again, pray.'
'You seem to find it like having a tooth drawn. Well! I am sworn to secrecy. I won't tell a living creature.'
'I am sure I know hardly anything, only that Lord Marchmont thinks very badly of him, and was quite sorry he had been asked to dinner. And he spoke of his having taken up Germanism, and oh! Caroline, for a man's faith to be unsettled is the worst of all, for then there is nothing to fall back upon.'
Caroline stood by Marian's fire, looking thoughtful for some moments. 'Yes,' she said, 'you and Walter are in the same mind there, but it is not like what I was brought up to think. Miss Cameron used to teach us that the being in earnest in believing was the thing rather than the form of faith.'
'O, Caroline, that cannot be right. We have been commanded to hold one form of faith, and it must be wrong to set up another and hold it.'
'Yes, but if people are not clear that only one was given to every one, and that just as we say it is?'
'Then it is very bad of them!' said Marian indignantly, 'for I am sure the Bible is quite clear--one faith--the form of sound words--the faith once delivered to the saints.'
