kind, dear Adrian!"

"He spoke of that?" demands Florence, in a tone of anguish. If he had
made her emotion a subject of common talk with Mrs. Talbot, all indeed
is at an end between them, even that sweet visionary offer of friendship
he had made to her. No; she could not submit to be talked about by him,
and the woman he loves! Oh, the bitter pang it costs her to say these
words to herself! That he now loves Dora seems to her mind beyond
dispute. Is she not his confidante, the one in whom he chooses to repose
all his secret thoughts and surmises?

Dora regards her cousin keenly. Florence's evident agitation makes her
fear that there was more in that _tête-à-tête_ with Sir Adrian than she
had at first imagined.

"Yes; why should he not speak of it?" Dora goes on coldly. "I think by
his manner your want of self-control shocked him. You should have a
greater command over yourself. It is not good form to betray one's
feelings to every chance passer-by. Yes; I think Sir Adrian was both
surprised and astonished."

"There was nothing to cause him either surprise or astonishment," says
Florence haughtily; "and I could well have wished him out of the way!"

"Perhaps I misunderstood him," rejoins Dora artfully. "But certainly
he spoke to me of being unpleasantly delayed by--by impossible
people--those were his very words; and really altogether--I may be
wrong--I believed he alluded to you. Of course, I would not follow the
matter up, because, much as I like Sir Adrian, I could not listen to him
speaking lightly of you!"