"_There's_ old Miss Christian _out_, I _declare_!" exclaimed Charity. "Did you ever _hear_ of such a thing? I _wonder_ whether Doctor Lyster knows she is out to-day. I'll just go and speak to her. If he doesn't, I'll simply tell her she is _mad_!"
And away marched Miss Charity, bent upon finding out, as she said, all about it.
"Agnes," said Tom Sedley, "it seemed to me to-day, you were not glad to see me. Are you vexed with me?"
"Vexed? No, indeed!" she said, gently, and looking up with a smile.
"And your sister said----" Tom paused, for he did not know whether Charity's whisper about her not having been "very strong" might not be a confidence.
"_What_ does Charity say?" asked Agnes, almost sharply, while a little flush appeared in her cheeks.
"Well, she said she did not think you were so strong as usual. That was all."
"That was _all_--no great consequence," said she, with a little smile upon the grass and sea-pinks--a smile that was bitter.
"You can't think I meant that, little Agnes, _I_ of all people; but I never was good at talking. And you _know_ I did not mean that."
"People often say--_I_ do, I know--what they mean without intending it," she answered, carelessly. "I _know_ you would not make a rude speech--I'm sure of that; and as to what we say accidentally, can it signify very much? Mr. Verney said he was coming back after the speeches, and Lord Verney, he said, didn't he? I wonder you don't look in at the town-hall. You could make us laugh by telling all about it, by-and-by--that is, if we happen to see you again."
"I meant this evening; to-morrow, perhaps, we should," said she.
"If I went there; but I'm not going. I think that old fellow, Lord Verney, Cleve's uncle, is an impertinent old muff. Every one knows he's a muff, though he _is_ Cleve's uncle; he gave me just one finger to-day, and looked at me as if I ought to be anywhere but where I was. I have as good a right as _he_ to be in Cardyllian, and I venture to say the people like me a great deal better than they like him, or ever will."
"And so you punish him by refusing your countenance to this--what shall I call it?--gala."
"Oh! of course you take the Verneys' part against me; they are swells, and I am a nobody."