Harriet laughed at this fancy, and Aurelia was impelled to defend it. "Indeed, Harriet, it is really so. There will be whispers--oh, such whispers!"--she sunk her voice and hid her face again--"close to my ear, and--endearments--while the grave voice sounds at the other end of the room, and then I long for light. I swooned for fright the first time, but I am much more used to it now."
"This is serious," said Harriet, with unwonted gravity. "Do you really think that there is another person in the room?"
"I do not feel as if it could be otherwise, and yet it is quite impossible."
"I would not bear it," said her sister. "You ought not to bear it. How do you know that it is not some vile stratagem? It might even be the blackamoor!"
"No, no, Harriet! I know better than that. It is quite impossible. Besides, I am sure of this--that the hands that wedded me are the same hands that caress me," she added, with another blushing effort, "strong but delicate hands, rather hard inside, as with the bridle. I noticed it because once I thought his hands soft with doing nothing and being shut up."
"That convinces me the more, then, there is some strange imposition practised upon you," said Harriet, anxiously.
"Oh, no!" said Aurelia, inconsistently; "Mr. Belamour is quite incapable of doing anything wrong by me. I cannot let you have such shocking notions. He told me I must be patient and trust him, though I should meet with much that was strange and inexplicable."
"This is trusting him much too far. They are playing on your inexperience, I am sure. If you were not a mere child, you would see what a shocking situation this is."
"I wish I had not told you," said Aurelia, tears rushing into her eyes. "I ought not! He bade me be cautious how I talked, and you have made me quite forget!"
"Did he so? Then it is evident that he fears disclosure! Something must be done. Why not write to our father?"
"I could not! He would call it a silly fancy."
"And it might embroil him with my Lady," added Harriet. "We must devise another mode."
"You will not--must not tell Mr. Arden," exclaimed Aurelia, peremptorily.
"Never fear! He heeds nothing more sublunary than the course of the planets. But I have it. His device will serve the purpose. Do you remember Eugene confounding him with Friar Bacon because he was said to light a candle without flint or steel? It was true. When he was a bachelor he always lit his own candle and fire, and he always carries the means. I was frighted the first time he showed me, but now I can do it as well as he. See," she said, opening a case, "a drop of this spirit upon this prepared cotton;" and as a bright flame sprang up and made Aurelia start, she laughed and applied a taper to it. "There, one such flash would be quite enough to prove to you whether there be any deception practised on you."