"I really do not know what you mean," said Miss Patty. "If I have said or done anything that has caused you pain, I can assure you it was quite unwittingly on my part, and I am very sorry for it; but, if you will tell me what it was, perhaps I may be able to explain it away, and disabuse your mind of a false impression." "I am quite sure that you did not intend to pain me," replied Verdant; "and I know that it was presumptuous in me to think as I did. It was scarcely probable that you would feel as I felt; and I ought to have made up my mind to it, and have borne my sufferings with a patient heart." (The ~Legend~ again!) "And yet when the shock ~does~ come, it is very hard to be borne." Miss Patty's bright eyes were dilated with wonder, and she again thought of Mr. Verdant Green in connection with champagne. Mr. Poletiss was still taking his pirate through all sorts of flats and sharps, and chromatic imitations of King George. "But, what ~is~ this shock?" asked Miss Patty. "Perhaps I can relieve it; and I ought to do so if it came through my means." "You cannot help me," said Verdant. "My suspicions were confirmed by your words, and they have sealed my fate." "But you have not yet told me what those words were, and I must really insist upon knowing," said Miss Patty, who had begun to look very seriously perplexed. "And, can you have forgotten!" was the reply. "Do you not remember, that, as we came up the hill, I put a certain [278 ADVENTURES OF MR. VERDANT GREEN] question to you about Mr. Delaval having proposed and having been accepted?" "Yes! I remember it very well! And, what then?" "And, what then!" echoed Mr. Verdant Green, in the greatest wonder at the young lady's calmness; "what then! why, when you told me that he ~had~ been accepted, was not that sufficient for me to know? - to know that all my love had been given to one who was another's, and that all my hopes were blighted! was not this sufficient to crush me, and to change the colour of my life?" And Verdant's face showed that, though he might be quoting from his ~Legend~, he was yet speaking from his heart. "Oh! I little expected this!" faltered Miss Patty, in real grief; "I little thought of this. Why did you not speak sooner to some one - to me, for instance - and have spared yourself this misery? If you had been earlier made acquainted with Frederick's attachment, you might then have checked your own. I did not ever dream of this!" And Miss Patty, who had turned pale, and trembled with agitation, could not restrain a tear. "It is very kind of you thus to feel for me!" said Verdant; "and all I ask is, that you will still remain my friend." "Indeed, I will. And I am sure Kitty will always wish to be the same. She will be sadly grieved to hear of this; for, I can assure you that she had no suspicion you were attached to her." "Attached to HER!" cried Verdant, with vast surprise. "What ever do you mean?"