"I don't suppose it's a secret. Mama, I don't suppose Deleah has been sent for by Sir Francis Forcus for anything she can't tell!" Emily, pouring out the lodger's supper beer, remarked that Miss Deleah was always one to keep things to herself, even when she had been a baby. "I can't imagine, Deleah, what he can have wanted with you," Mrs. Day said, in answer to Bessie's appeal. "It was nothing much, mama." "It couldn't have been _nothing_. At least say if it was good or bad," persisted the elder sister. "I don't see why Deda need be so affected and silly, mama." "Oh, do let me get some supper first," Deleah prayed. "Thank you, Mr. Gibbon. Some beef, please." Those prominent, burning eyes of the boarder, the eyes which Mrs. Day and Bessie had discovered rescued his face from the commonplace, were upon her face, with a desperately eager questioning. In his heart he believed that Sir Francis had sent for her to beg her to marry either himself or his brother. 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 It was not till Emily had reluctantly withdrawn that Deleah confessed that Bessie was right, and told her news defiantly, in a sentence.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." Her face had flushed pink. She felt the insult to the family very keenly. "Now you've _got_ to marry him, Deleah. Mama, tell Deleah that for her own pride's sake she's got to marry Reggie now." "No!" said Mr. Gibbon. He laid down his knife and fork with a clatter, and fixed angry eyes on Bessie. "No!" he said, and having stared at her till, astonished, she averted her eyes, he turned a protecting gaze on Deleah. "Miss Deleah need do nothing of the sort," he said reassuringly. "I certainly shall not," Deleah said.