But Grey's quick ear caught Bessie's whispered words,
and before he entered the warm, pretty room at the head of the stairs he
knew it belonged to her, and guessed why she had given it to him. Under
any circumstances he would have known by certain unmistakable signs that
it was a young girl's apartment into which he was ushered, and after
Neil left him he looked about him with a kind of awe at the
chintz-covered furniture, the white curtains at the window, and the
pretty little toilet table with its hanging glass in the center, and its
coverings of pink and white muslin.
Just then, through the door, which had inadvertently been left a little
ajar, he caught the sound of voices in the hall below, Neil's voice and
Bessie's and Neil was saying to her, disapprovingly:
"Why did you give your room to Grey? Was it necessary?"
"Yes, Neil; there was no other comfortable place for him; the north room
is so large and the chimney smokes so we could never get it warm,"
Bessie said, and Neil continued:
"And so you are to sleep there and catch your death-cold?"
"Not a bit of it," Bessie replied.
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