"Nothing!" and Ermine indulged in a fit of laughter at his
discomfiture, so comical that he could not but laugh himself, as he
said, "Ah! the pleasure of disappointing me quite consoles you."

"No; the proof of the discretion of womanhood does that! You
thought, because she tells all her troubles to you, that she must
needs do so to the rest of the world."

"There is little difference between telling you and me."

"That's the fault of your discretion, not of hers."

"I should like to know who has been annoying her. I suspect--"

"So do I. And when you get the confidence at first hand, you will
receive it with a better grace than if you had had a contraband
foretaste."

He smiled. "I thought yours a more confidence-winning face, Ermine."

"That depends on my respect for the individual. Now I thought Lady
Temple would much prefer my looking another way, and talking about
Conrade's Latin grammar, to my holding out my arms and inviting her
to pour into my tender breast what another time she had rather not
know that I knew."

"That is being an honourable woman," he said, and Rose's return ended
the exchange of speculations; but it must be confessed that at their
next meeting Ermine's look of suppressed inquiry quite compensated