Perhaps he would have given a great deal to know whether they were engaged, to be married; but still Margaret gave no sign.

It was far from her thoughts; and the fact had only presented itself in that form to her on the spur of the moment, the preceding evening, as likely to prove a crushing blow at once to Mr.Barker's plotting and Mr.Barker's matrimonial views.

But while the Duke talked, she was thinking.

And as the situation slowly unfolded its well-known pictures to her mind, she suddenly saw it all in a different light.
"I must be mad," she thought.

"Barker will tell every one; and the Duke ought not to know it except from me!" "Speaking of Dr.Claudius--" she began; the Duke was at that moment talking earnestly about the Pueblo Indians, but that was of no importance.