"I cannot say more now, my brain is fatigued; and you are not yet in the
right mood to hear me. By the way, how close and reserved you are with
me!"

"How so?"

"You never told me that you were engaged to be married. You leave me, who
thought to have won your friendship, to hear what concerns you so
intimately from a comparative stranger."

"Who told you?"

"That woman with eyes that pry and lips that scheme, to whose house you
took me."

"Mrs. Poyntz! is it possible? When?"

"This afternoon. I met her in the street; she stopped me, and, after some
unmeaning talk, asked if I had seen you lately; if I did not find you very
absent and distracted: no wonder;--you were in love. The young lady was
away on a visit, and wooed by a dangerous rival."

"Wooed by a dangerous rival!"

"Very rich, good-looking, young. Do you fear him? You turn pale."

"I do not fear, except so far as he who loves truly, loves humbly, and
fears not that another may be preferred, but that another may be worthier
of preference than himself. But that Mrs. Poyntz should tell you all this