Birch. At the moment she had been thinking of other
things; it had roused no sleeping associations. But now the obscure
under-self sent it echoing through the brain. Fanny caught her breath.
The sudden excitement made her head swim.--She turned and looked at the
white-haired elderly man sitting between her and Diana.
Sir James Chide!
Memories of the common gossip in her home, of the talk of the people on
the steamer, of pages in that volume of _Famous Trials_ she had studied
on the voyage with such a close and unsavory curiosity danced through
the girl's consciousness. Well, _he_ knew! No good pretending there. And
he came to see Diana--and still Diana knew nothing! Mrs. Colwood must
simply be telling lies--silly lies! Fanny glanced at her with contempt.
Yet so bewildered was she that when Sir James addressed her, she stared
at him in what seemed a fit of shyness. And when she began to talk it
was at random, for her mind was in a tumult. But Sir James soon divined
her. Vulgarity, conceit, ill-breeding--the great lawyer detected them in
five minutes' conversation. Nor were they unexpected; for he was well
acquainted with Miss Fanny's origins.
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