"Oh! hah!... that explains it all.... You need not blush so about it, my dear; why did you not tell me so at once?" "I do not think it is quite certain," returned Agnes, attempting to smile, "that Colonel Hubert spoke of me." "Don't you, my dear ... but I do, and I know him best, I suppose.... And what was it you sang to him, Agnes?" Agnes mentioned the songs; but her voice trembled so, that she grievously repented having brought on herself questions that she found it so difficult to answer. Her embarrassment was not greatly relieved by perceiving,--when at length she looked up to save herself from the awkwardness of pertinaciously looking down,--that the eyes of Lady Stephenson were earnestly fixed upon her. "Did you ever see Frederick Stephenson with my brother?" said her ladyship; "they were at Clifton together this summer.... Perhaps you don't know that I was married there, Agnes?... and Sir Edward and I left our two brothers there together." This change of subject was a considerable relief; and Agnes answered with tolerable composure,--"Oh yes!... I did know you were married there, for I heard it mentioned several times; ... and I saw you too, Lady Stephenson, the evening before you were married, walking up and down Gloucester Row with ... with your brother." "Did you indeed?--Were you walking there, Agnes?" "No ... we were at the drawing-room window, and my aunt made me look out to see your brother." "Why particularly to see my brother?" inquired Lady Stephenson with a smile. "Because ... because he was so tall, I believe," replied Agnes, looking considerably more silly than she had ever done in her life. "And so you watched us walking up and down, did you, Agnes?" "Yes, once or twice," answered Agnes, again blushing violently. "And did you hear what we said, my dear?" "No!... but I am sure it was something very interesting, you seemed to be talking so earnestly." "It was very interesting ... it was about Frederick.... You knew him too, did not you?" "Oh yes!... very well." "Really!... I wonder you never told me so before." It was impossible to look at Agnes at this moment, as Lady Stephenson now looked at her, without perceiving that there must be some cause for the agitation she evinced. It immediately occurred to her that it was likely enough Frederick might have laid his heart at her feet, or perhaps stopped short before he did so from the effect of that very conversation of which Agnes had been an eye, though not an ear, witness. "Poor little thing!"... thought Lady Stephenson; "if this be so, and if she has given her young heart in return, how greatly is she to be pitied!" No sooner had this idea struck her, which many trifling circumstances tended to confirm, than Lady Stephenson determined to drop the subject for ever; and much as Agnes secretly but tremblingly wished it, no allusion was ever made to the two gentlemen again. * * * * *