"

But all she answered was--

"Oh, Dick, Dick--my poor little Dick--I hope you will never--never
know!" Which poor little Dick could not understand.

* * * * *

Hubert Lepel arrived on the following day. He had not been to Beechfield
Hall for some weeks, and he seemed to feel it incumbent upon him to make
up to Enid for his long absence by presents and compliments; for he had
brought her a beautiful bracelet, and was unusually profuse in his
expressions of regard and admiration. And yet Enid seemed scarcely so
pleased as a young girl in similar circumstances ought to have seemed.
Indeed she shrank a little from private conversation with him, and
looked harassed and troubled.

It was perhaps in consequence of this fact that three days after his
arrival Hubert sought a private interview with his sister. Flossy had
meanwhile not spoken a word; she had been watching and waiting for those
three days.

"Florence, I am inclined to think that you were mistaken."

"So am I," thought Flossy to herself; but aloud she only asked, "Why,
dear?" with perfect tranquility.

"About Enid. I--I am beginning to think that she doesn't much care." He
said the last words slowly, with his eyes on the tip of his boot.

"I am sure you are mistaken," said Flossy quietly. "But she is not
demonstrative, and--well, I may as well say it to you--she has taken
some idea into her head--something about me--about the past----"

She faltered skilfully; but she kept her eyes on Hubert's face, and saw
that it wore a guilty look.

"Well, Flossy, you are right," he said. "She has heard
something--village talk, I suppose--and I cannot get her to tell me what
it is."

"She means perhaps to tell some one else?" said Mrs. Vane, with
bitterness.

"No, I believe not. She has no wish to harm you, poor child, although
she thinks that the General ought not to be deceived. However, I
persuaded her to abandon that idea, showing her that it was not her duty
to tell a thing that would so utterly destroy his happiness." Florence
turned away her head. "I felt myself a villain," Hubert continued
gravely, "in counseling her to stifle her conscientious scruples,
Florence; but, for your sake and your husband's sake, I pleaded with
her, and prevailed on her to keep silence--she will tell no one but
myself after our marriage."

"You had better not let her open the subject with you at all. It will
only be productive of unhappiness."