'
'Then there is no time to be lost,' thought Falconer.
'Without presuming to express any opinion of my own,' he said
quietly, 'a social code far less severe than that which prevails in
England, would take for granted that an impassable barrier existed
between Major Moray and Miss Hamilton.'
'Do not suppose, Mr. Falconer, that I could not meet Major Moray's
honesty with equal openness on my side.'
Falconer, for the first time almost in his life, was incapable of
speech from bewilderment. But Miss Hamilton did not in the least
enjoy his perplexity, and made haste to rescue both him and herself.
With a blush that was now deep as any rose, she resumed,
'But I owe you equal frankness, Mr. Falconer. There is no barrier
between Major Moray and myself but the foolish--no,
wicked--indiscretion of an otherwise innocent and ignorant girl.
Listen, Mr. Falconer: under the necessity of the circumstances you
will not misjudge me if I compel myself to speak calmly. This, I
trust, will be my final penance. I thought Lord Rothie was going to
marry me. To do him justice, he never said so. Make what excuse
for my folly you can. I was lost in a mist of vain imaginations. I
had had no mother to teach me anything, Mr. Falconer, and my father
never suspected the necessity of teaching me anything. I was very
ill on the passage to Antwerp, and when I began to recover a little,
I found myself beginning to doubt both my own conduct and his
lordship's intentions.
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