pardon me—your irrepressible emotions in the presence and still more in the absence of your child, and not form my own conjectures? I formed them, and they are literally correct. I shall begin to think myself shrewd."
"And you said nothing?" observed Caroline, who soon regained the quiet control of her feelings.
"Nothing. I had no warrant to breathe a word on the subject. My business it was not: I abstained from making it such."
"You guessed so deep a secret, and did not hint that you guessed it?"
"Is that so difficult?"
"It is not like you."
"How do you know?"
"You are not reserved. You are frankly communicative."
"I may be communicative, yet know where to stop. In showing my treasure, I may withhold a gem or two—a curious, unbought, graven stone—an amulet, of whose mystic glitter I rarely permit even myself a glimpse. Good-day."
Caroline thus seemed to get a view of Shirley's character under a novel aspect. Ere long, the prospect was renewed: it opened upon her.
No sooner had she regained sufficient strength to bear a change of scene—the excitement of a little society—than Miss Keeldar sued daily for her presence at Fieldhead. Whether Shirley had become
