PHOEBE. I am sure of it. They talked for a moment to Ensign Blades, and then turned and seemed to be going towards the shrubbery. MISS SUSAN. He had heard that you were there with Captain Brown. He must have told them. PHOEBE. I was not. But oh, sister, I am sure they suspect, else why should they be here? They never frequent balls. MISS SUSAN. They have suspected for a week, ever since they saw you in your veil, Phoebe, on the night of the first dance. How could they but suspect, when they have visited us every day since then and we have always pretended that Livvy was gone out. PHOEBE. Should they see my face it will be idle to attempt to deceive them. MISS SUSAN. Idle indeed; Phoebe, the scandal! You--a schoolmistress! PHOEBE. That is it, sister. A little happiness has gone to my head like strong waters. (_She is very restless and troubled._) MISS SUSAN. My dear, stand still, and think. PHOEBE. I dare not, I cannot. Oh, Susan, if they see me we need not open school again. MISS SUSAN. We shall starve. PHOEBE (_passionately_). This horrid, forward, flirting, heartless, hateful little toad of a Livvy. MISS SUSAN. Brother James's daughter, as we call her! PHOEBE. 'Tis all James's fault. MISS SUSAN. Sister, when you know that James has no daughter! PHOEBE. If he had really had one, think you I could have been so wicked as to personate her? Susan, I know not what I am saying, but you know who it is that has turned me into this wild creature. MISS SUSAN. Oh, Valentine Brown, how could you? PHOEBE. To weary of Phoebe--patient, lady-like Phoebe--the Phoebe whom I have lost--to turn from her with a 'Bah, you make me old,' and become enamoured in a night of a thing like this! MISS SUSAN. Yes, yes, indeed; yet he has been kind to us also. He has been to visit us several times. PHOEBE. In the hope to see her. Was he not most silent and gloomy when we said she was gone out? MISS SUSAN. He is infatuate---- (_She hesitates._) Sister, you are not partial to him still? PHOEBE. No, Susan, no. I did love him all those years, though I never spoke of it to you. I put hope aside at once, I folded it up and kissed it and put it away like a pretty garment I could never wear again, I but loved to think of him as a noble man. But he is not a noble man, and Livvy found it out in an hour. The gallant! I flirted that I might enjoy his fury. Susan, there has been a declaration in his eyes all to-night, and when he cries 'Adorable Miss Livvy, be mine,' I mean to answer with an 'Oh, la, how ridiculous you are. You are much too old--I have been but quizzing you, sir.' MISS SUSAN. Phoebe, how can you be so cruel? PHOEBE. Because he has taken from me the one great glory that is in a woman's life. Not a man's love--she can do without that--but her own dear sweet love for him. He is unworthy of my love; that is why I can be so cruel. MISS SUSAN. Oh, dear.