But Frances, unable longer to control her agitation, took advantage of a slight noise in the hall, to say that Mr and Mrs Gaskoin were coming; and before he had time to finish his sentence, she started to her feet, and rushed out of the room.
On the other side of the hall was Mrs Gaskoin's boudoir, where she and her husband were sitting over the fire, awaiting the result of the tête-à-tête in the drawing-room.
'Well?' said they, rising as the door opened and a pale face looked in. 'Is it all settled?'
'Ask me nothing now, I beseech you!' said Frances. 'I'm going to my room; tell Major Elliott I am not well; say I'm agitated--anything you like; but remember, he still thinks me Fanny Gaskoin'----
'But, my dear girl, I cannot permit that deception to be carried any further; it has lasted too long already,' said Mr Gaskoin.
'It is not fair to Major Elliott,' urged Mrs Gaskoin.
'Only to-night! only to-night!' reiterated Frances. 'There! he's coming; I hear his step in the hall! Let me out this way!' and so saying, she darted out of a door that led to the backstairs, and disappeared.
'She has refused him!' said Mrs Gaskoin. 'I confess I am amazed.'
But Major Elliott met them with a smiling face. 'What has become of Frances?' said he.
'She rushed in to us in a state of violent agitation, and begged we would tell you that she is not well, and is gone to her room. I'm afraid the result of your interview has not been what we expected.'
'On the contrary,' returned Major Elliott, 'you must both congratulate me on my good-fortune.'
'Silly girl!' said Mr Gaskoin, shaking his friend heartily by the hand. 'I see what it is: she is nervous about a little deception we have been practising on you.'
'Why, you see, my dear fellow, when I told Frances that you were coming here, she objected to meeting you'----
'You have never suspected anything?' said Mr Gaskoin, scarcely repressing his laughter.
'It has never by chance occurred to you that this bewitching niece of mine is'----
'Your betrothed lady, for example, Frances Seymour?'
Major Elliott's cheeks and lips turned several shades paler; but the candles were not lighted, and his friends did not remark the change.
'That is the precise state of the case, I assure you;' and then Mr Gaskoin proceeded to explain how the deception came to be practised. 'I gave into it,' he said, 'though I do not like jests of that sort, because I thought, as my wife did, that you were much more likely to take a fancy to each other, if you did not know who she was, than if you met under all the embarrassment of such an awkward relation.'