I trust"-- and here she looked at him anxiously--"that you have no bad news for us." "I am afraid it is not good," he replied evasively.
"It has something to do with those odious Jacobis ?" Again Malcolm bowed his head.
"Cedric seems infatuated about them," she returned, with something of her old impetuosity, the words tripping each other up in the usual Elizabethan way.

"We thought the man detestable--even Dinah could not tolerate him.

Oh," interrupting herself, "what am I thinking about?
you have come all this distance on our account, and I have never thought of your comfort--you have not dined, of course;" and Elizabeth's hand was on the bell, but he stopped her.
"I have just had supper at the 'King's Arms,' where I have taken a bed; I want nothing, I assure you." "At the King's Arms'!" exclaimed Elizabeth.

Then she suddenly flushed and bit her lip.

She had forgotten--how could she suppose that anything would induce him to sleep under their roof again! Malcolm's manner, his painful air of consciousness, the deep melancholy in his eyes, told her plainly that his trouble was as fresh as ever.
Elizabeth began to feel nervous; it was a relief to both of them when Mullins entered the room with the coffee.