Supposing she had consented! Supposing she was going to say it
now! His red, square-looking hands shook pitiably as he carved the beef
and put it on her plate.
"Perhaps Miss Deleah would rather keep her news till I'm gone," he forced
himself to say.
"Oh no," Deleah, who would infinitely have preferred to do so, but must
not hurt his feelings, declared.
"It is about Reggie, I know," said Bessie, her eyes, filled with fierce
questioning, on the girl.
It was not till Emily had reluctantly withdrawn that Deleah confessed that
Bessie was right, and told her news defiantly, in a sentence. "Sir Francis
sent for me to ask me not to marry his brother," she said, and applied
herself to the contents of her plate as if she were really enjoying them.
For a minute, speechless with surprise, they gazed upon her.
"But _were_ you going to marry him?" Bessie at length inquired.
"No," said Deleah; "I was not."
"And did you tell him so."
"No."
"My dear Deleah!" from her mother. "You should have told him, of course."
"I didn't. I don't know why. I felt I could not. I hardly said anything, I
think."
"But now I _would_ marry him!" Bessie cried. "No man should put an insult
like that on me for nothing.
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