Angela glanced about her, without meeting his eye.
"They seem to have gone."
Miss Evers strolled on, and her Captain of course kept pace with her; so
that Bernard and Miss Vivian were left standing together. He looked at
her a moment in silence, but her eye still avoided his own.
"You are remarkably inconsistent," Bernard presently said. "You take a
solemn vow of seclusion this afternoon, and no sooner have you taken it
than you proceed to break it in this outrageous manner."
She looked at him now--a long time--longer than she had ever done
before.
"This is part of the examination, I suppose," she said.
Bernard hesitated an instant.
"What examination?"
"The one you have undertaken--on Mr. Wright's behalf."
"What do you know about that?"
"Ah, you admit it then?" the girl exclaimed, with an eager laugh.
"I don't in the least admit it," said Bernard, conscious only for the
moment of the duty of loyalty to his friend and feeling that negation
here was simply a point of honor.
"I trust more to my own conviction than to your denial. You have engaged
to bring your superior wisdom and your immense experience to bear upon
me! That 's the understanding."
"You must think us a pretty pair of wiseacres," said Bernard.
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