"Do you feel faint, ma'am?"

"Faint?... No, why should I?"

The young person, convicted of impertinence and silliness besides,
turned red, but would not remove her gaze from the lady's face.

"The--the heat we been havin', ma'am. I don't know--it's so sickenin',
kind of. I--I fainted last week, twice, ma'am."

Something nameless in the little creature's wide-eyed gaze, timid and
yet thrilled, arrested Carlisle in the act of shutting the door upon
her. Was it possible that this singular messenger of Fate had knowledge
of the message she brought?

"Why do you stare at me so?"

The girl replied with simplicity:

"I can't help it, ma'am, you look so sweet."

Carlisle leaned against the polished edge of the glass and oak door. The
same chill little hand clenched the unfinished pages to Hugo, and
Vivian's only too fatally finished note. She perceived who this girl
must be, and even in this moment her thought was riveted by the wild
suspicion that her secret had already been betrayed.

"You live at the Dabney House, I suppose?--you're a buncher at the
Works?... How did you know me--that this note was for me?"