"You know this gentleman very well, then?"
"O no, madam!" she answered hastily, "I don't know him at all! he only comes here to see my brother; it would be very impertinent for me to call him an acquaintance of mine."
"Was it before your brother, then, he held this conversation with you?"
"O no, my brother would have been affronted with him, too, if he had! but he called here to enquire for him at the time when he was lost to us, and my mother quite went down upon her knees to him to beg him to go to Lord Vannelt's, and make excuses for him, if he had not behaved properly: but if my brother was to know this, he would hardly speak to her again! so when this gentleman came next, I begged him not to mention it, for my mother happened to be out, and so I saw him alone."
"And did he stay with you long?"
"No, ma'am, a very short time indeed; but I asked him questions all the while, and kept him as long as I could, that I might hear all he had to say about my brother."
"Have you never seen him since?"
"No, ma'am, not once! I suppose he does not know my brother is come back to us. Perhaps when he does, he will call."
"Do you wish him to call?"
"Me?" cried she, blushing, "a little;--sometimes I do;--for my brother's sake."
"For your brother's sake! Ah my dear Henrietta! but tell me,--or don't tell me if you had rather not,--did I not once see you kissing a letter? perhaps it was from this same noble friend?"
"It was not a letter, madam," said she, looking down, "it was only the cover of one to my brother."
"The cover of a letter only!--and that to your brother!--is it possible you could so much value it?"
"Ah madam! You, who are always used to the good and the wise, who see no other sort of people but those in high life, you can have no notion how they strike those that they are new to!--but I who see them seldom, and who live with people so very unlike them--Oh you cannot guess how sweet to me is every thing that belongs to them! whatever has but once been touched by their hands, I should like to lock up, and keep for ever! though if I was used to them, as you are, perhaps I might think less of them."
Alas! thought Cecilia, who by them knew she only meant him, little indeed would further intimacy protect you!