"Ah! But you, Miss Dodd? with whom I have taken this unwarrantable
liberty?" said Hardie imploringly.

"Me, Mr. Hardie? You do me the honour to require my opinion of your
performances: including of course this self-introduction?"

Hardie hung his head; there was a touch of satire in the lady's voice, he
thought.

Her soft eyes rested demurely on him a moment; she saw he was a little
abashed.

"My opinion of it all is that you have been very kind to us; in being
most kind to our poor Edward. I never saw, nor read of anything more
generous, more manly. And then _so_ thoughtful, _so_ considerate, _so_
delicate! So instead of criticising you, as you seem to expect, his
sister only blesses you, and thanks you from the very bottom of her
heart."

She had begun within a polite composure borrowed from mamma; but, once
launched, her ardent nature got the better: her colour rose and rose, and
her voice sank and sank, and the last words came almost in a whisper; and
such a lovely whisper: a gurgle from the heart; and, as she concluded,
her delicate hand came sweeping out with a heaven-taught gesture of large
and sovereign cordiality, that made even the honest words and the divine
tones more eloquent. It was too much; the young man, ardent as herself,
and not, in reality, half so timorous, caught fire; and seeing a white,
eloquent hand rather near him, caught it, and pressed his warm lips on it
in mute adoration and gratitude.