His frequent visits to the
house gave him opportunity to study her character, and the more he saw of
her, the higher grew his respect. A more tender feeling also was growing
within his breast, that gave him secret pleasure, though he kept well in
check any sign of its existence. He never had found the opportunity of
asking the truth of her engagement; but being assured that she had a
gentleman correspondent, he felt he had little cause to hope. He had been
present on more than one occasion when Dexie had discussed with the rest of
the family various extracts from letters which had come from over the sea.
To be sure, these extracts were mostly descriptions of places that the
writer had visited, or accounts of amusing episodes met with while
travelling; but there lingered an undefined impression on Guy Traverse's
mind that these letters were not so sacred as one would naturally suppose
they should be if the writer were dear to the heart of the recipient.
"Something is troubling Dexie to-night," he said to himself, as he noticed
how unusually silent and preoccupied she remained, even when the merriment
seemed at its height.
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