Henrietta gazed at her, in silence, for a period of time which tried Isabel's patience, so that our heroine said at last—
"Do you mean that you are going to be married?"
"Not till I have seen Europe!" said Miss Stackpole. "What are you laughing at?" she went on. "What I mean is, that Mr. Goodwood came out in the steamer with me."
"Ah!" Isabel exclaimed, quickly.
"You say that right. I had a good deal of talk with him; he has come after you."
"Did he tell you so?"
"No, he told me nothing; that's how I knew it," said Henrietta, cleverly. "He said very little about you, but I spoke of you a good deal."
Isabel was silent a moment. At the mention of Mr. Goodwood's name she had coloured a little, and now her blush was slowly fading.
"I am very sorry you did that," she observed at last.
"It was a pleasure to me, and I liked the way he listened. I could have talked a long time to such a listener; he was so quiet, so intense; he drank it all in."
"What did you say about me?" Isabel asked.
"I said you were on the whole the finest creature I know."
"I am very sorry for that. He thinks too well of me already; he ought not to be encouraged."
"He is dying for a little encouragement. I see his face now, and his earnest, absorbed look, while I talked. I never saw an ugly man look so handsome!"
"He is very simple-minded," said Isabel. "And he is not so ugly."
"There is nothing so simple as a great passion."
"It is not a great passion; I am very sure it is not that."
