"
I looked at her vacantly for a moment, and falling back languidly in
my seat, muttered faintly, "Go on."
"Where was I?" she resumed, looking wistfully into the space between
us; "Oh, yes--where Miss Hartney pronounced Ernest Dalton's name so
flourishingly--your mother looked up at her with a blanched face when
she said this, and asked:
"'Do you know for certain that what you say is true?'
"'Oh! my dear Amey--really--you frighten me,' her aunt exclaimed, with
dilated eyes and recoiling gesture, 'I am sure I can't say whether it
is Gospel truth or not, I only know what I heard and what I saw!'
"'What you _saw_?' your mother interrupted, huskily. 'What did you
_see_, Aunt Winnie?'
"'I saw this Mr. Dalton paying such attentions to a young lady while I
was there as would convince anyone of the truth of the rumours that
are afloat about him,' she simpered out, half-defiantly.
"'His sister, perhaps' your mother muttered, knocking her ivory
pen-handle nervously against her white teeth.
"'No, indeed--nor his cousin neither,' Miss Hartney retorted, with a
covert little sneer. 'What is it to you any way, child, who she is, or
what he does?' she then asked with cruel mischief.
"'It is all the world to me, Aunt Winnie,' your mother made answer,
rising up in solemn dignity, with a white face and quivering lips, 'It
is my life to me, for I love this man.'
"'Whatever are you talking of, child!' her aunt screamed, leaning her
thin hands on the arms of her chair, and bending towards her niece in
furious consternation.
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