Miss Agnes nodded with a scarcely perceptible smile.
"And I know--that is, I found out afterwards--that he admired her, I mean the young lady--Margaret, they called her--awfully. He never let me know it himself, though. I hate fellows being so close and dark about everything, and I've found out other things; and, in short, if people don't like to tell me their--_secrets_ I won't call them, for everyone in Cardyllian knows all about them--I'm hanged if I ask them. All I know is, that Cleve is going to live a good deal at Ware, which means at Cardyllian, which will be a charming thing, a positive blessing,--won't it?--for the inhabitants and neighbours; and that I shall trouble them very little henceforward with my presence. There's Charity beckoning to me; would you mind my going to see what she wants?"
So, dismissed, away he ran like a "fielder" after a "by," as he had often run over the same ground before.
"Thomas Sedley, I want you to tell Lyster, the apothecary, to send a small bottle of _sal volatile_ to Miss Christian immediately. I'd go myself--it's only round the corner--but I'm afraid of the crowd. If he can give it to you now, perhaps you'd bring it, and I'll wait here."
When he brought back the phial, and Miss Charity had given it with a message at Miss Christian's trelliced door, she took Tom's arm, and said,--
"Yes, of course. She's not herself. She does not tell me, but I _know_ the cause, and, as an old friend of ours, and a friend, beside, of Mr. Cleve Verney, I must tell you that I think he is using her _disgracefully_."
"How do you mean? Shrapnell wrote me word that he was very attentive, and used to join her in her walks; and afterwards he said that he had been mistaken, and discovered that he was awfully in love with the young lady at Malory."
"_Don't_ believe a _word_ of it. I _wonder_ at Captain Shrapnell circulating such _insanity_. He must _know_ how it really was, and _is_. I look upon it as _perfectly wicked_, the way that Captain Shrapnell talks. You're not to mention it, _of course_, to anyone. It would be _scandalous_ of you, Thomas Sedley, to _think_ of breathing a _word_ to _mortal_--_mind that_; but I'm certain you _wouldn't_."
"What a beast Cleve Verney has turned out!" exclaimed Tom Sedley. "Do you think she still cares for him?"