Sir Barnard knew it.

They fairly hunted him down; they were always driving over here, or asking Sir Barnard and Miles there; they were continually contriving fresh means to throw Miles and Agatha together." I would not please her by showing my anger.
"Perhaps," I said, carelessly, "Miles admired her; he may even have been her lover." She turned to me with a strange, glittering smile, a look I could not fathom on her face.
"No," she replied: "Miles knew all about it; he was too sensible to be caught by the insipid charms of a mere school-girl.

Sir Barnard was not so wise; he would have liked to join the two estates--he spoke of it very often--but Miles never gave the matter a serious thought." There was such unconcealed bitterness in her words and look--such malice in that glittering smile, I turned away half in disgust.
"All our neighbors understand Lady Thesiger's politics," she continued; "they have been a source of great amusement for some time." "Miss Thesiger is not a day above eighteen," I said, fairly angry at last; "so that there can not have been much time for manoeuvring." "Ah!" she said, "how I admire you, Sir Edgar.

That simple, noble faith you have in women is most beautiful to me; one sees it so seldom in those who have lived always among fashionable men and women." A little speech that was intended to remind me how strange and fresh I was to this upper world.

I began to find something like dislike to mademoiselle growing up in my mind; but I spoke to her of the Thesigers no more..