"I wonder if his constancy will ever be rewarded?" said Bessie,
lightly; then, as Rachel looked at her in wonder and almost rebuke
for so direct and impertinent a jest, she exclaimed, "Surely you are
not in ignorance! What have I done? I thought all the world knew--
all the inner world, that is, that revels in a secret."

"Knew what?" said Rachel, unavoidable intolerable colour rushing into
her face.

"Why the romance of Colin and Ermine! To live on the verge of such
a--a tragi-comedy, is it? and not be aware of it, I do pity you."

"The only wonder is how you knew it," said her brother, in a tone of
repression.

"I! Oh, it is a fine thing to be a long-eared little pitcher when
one's elders imagine one hears nothing but what is addressed to
oneself. There I sat, supposed to be at my lessons, when the English
letters came in, and I heard papa communicating to mamma how he had a
letter from old Lord Keith--not this one but one older still--the
father of him--about his son's exchange--wanted papa to know that he
was exemplary and all that, and hoped he would be kind to him, but
just insinuated that leave was not desirable--in fact it was to break
off an affair at home. And then, while I was all on fire to see what
a lover looked like, comes another letter, this time to mamma, from
Lady Alison something, who could not help recommending to her
kindness her dear nephew Colin, going out broken-hearted at what was
feared would prove a fatal accident, to the dearest, noblest girl in
the world, for so she must call Ermine Williams. Ermine was a name
to stick in one's memory if Williams was not, and so I assumed