"From the mistake you've just made, Miss Armstrong, I presume you took
me for some one bearing the baptismal name of Charles. In these parts I
know only one person who carries that cognomen--one Charles Clancy. If
it be he you are expecting, I think I can save you the necessity of
stopping out in the night air any longer. If you're staying for him
you'll be disappointed; he will certainly not come."
"What mean you, Mr Darke? Why do you say that?"
His words carry weighty significance, and throw the proud girl off her
guard. She speaks confusedly, and without reflection.
His rejoinder, cunningly conceived, designed with the subtlety of the
devil, still further affects her, and painfully.