"Not so stupid as he looks!" exclaimed her sister, smiling.
"If I were in love with Lord Lambeth, as you said just now, it would be bad policy on your part to abuse him."
"My dear child, don't give me lessons in policy!" cried Mrs. Westgate, "The policy I mean to follow is very deep."
The young girl began to walk about the room again; then she stopped before her sister. "I have never heard in the course of five minutes," she said, "so many hints and innuendoes. I wish you would tell me in plain English what you mean."
"I mean that you may be much annoyed."
"That is still only a hint," said Bessie.
Her sister looked at her, hesitating an instant.
"It will be said of you that you have come after Lord Lambeth—that you followed him."
Bessie Alden threw back her pretty head like a startled hind, and a look flashed into her face that made Mrs. Westgate rise from her chair. "Who says such things as that?" she demanded.
"People here."
"I don't believe it," said Bessie.
"You have a very convenient faculty of doubt. But my policy will be, as I say, very deep. I shall leave you to find out this kind of thing for your self."
