"You will not tell her?" asked the woman eagerly. "She would be angry with me; she would not understand. You will not tell her?" "No, of course I won't say anything," said Comethup doubtfully, "but I'm quite sure you've made a mistake." "Good-night," said Mrs. Dawson, and set off at a rapid pace for the house. Comethup, walking home under the stars, remembered that 'Linda had seemed, when first he saw her that night, to be expecting some one else. He linked that remembrance and the words he had just heard together, and was troubled. CHAPTER XVIII. AUNT CHARLOTTE IS SYMPATHETIC. Comethup almost forgot his distrust and his fears during the few days which followed, for 'Linda came to the captain's cottage in quite the old fashion and accompanied them on their excursions, and seemed, in heart and soul, but little removed from the child of old times. She danced and flitted as gaily as ever among the roses, and was in all things so tenderly, earnestly grateful to Comethup for the excursions he planned and the holidays he gave her that he was more than rewarded, and began to find that no day was quite complete in which he did not see her, no night a time of serene and happy dreams in which he did not carry to his pillow some tender word she had spoken, or the remembrance of some glance she had given him. In that growing love for her which filled him he began--as lovers will--to read into her words, even of the most commonplace order, a new meaning; to give them a new gentleness, as addressed to himself. He was in danger of forgetting his duties in London altogether had not the captain delicately reminded him of his aunt one morning while they sat at breakfast. Comethup flushed with contrition, and determined to go to town at once. He promised 'Linda on taking leave of her that he would come down again soon, and he kept his word. To such effect did he keep it that Miss Charlotte Carlaw, regarding his absences from London with some anxiety, touched at last upon the matter in her own characteristic way. "You're rather fond of the captain, aren't you?" she said to him one day, when he had carelessly suggested to her that he thought he would run down to see the old man on the morrow. "Yes," said Comethup slowly. "We've always been--been very good friends." "So I should imagine," said Miss Carlaw, with a short laugh. "Are you aware, my dear boy, that you've been down to see the captain five times in about seven weeks?" "I--I didn't think it was quite so many as that," said Comethup. He felt grateful that his aunt could not see his face. "But you see--well, the captain's always glad to see me--and I----"