 said Clara.
    »Let the Dales know I am prepared to listen to the boy, Vernon. There can be
no necessity for Mr. Dale to drag himself here.«
    »How are Mr. Dale and his daughter of a divided mind, Mr. Whitford?« said
Clara.
    Vernon simulated an uneasiness. With a vacant gaze that enlarged around
Willoughby and was more discomforting than intentness, he replied: »Perhaps she
is unwilling to give him her entire confidence, Miss Middleton.«
    »In which respect, then, our situations present their solitary point of
unlikeness in resemblance, for I have it in excess,« observed Dr. Middleton.
    Clara dropped her eyelids for the wave to pass over. »It struck me that Miss
Dale was a person of the extremest candour.«
    »Why should we be prying into the domestic affairs of the Dales!« Willoughby
interjected, and drew out his watch, merely for a diversion; he was on tiptoe to
learn whether Vernon was as well instructed as Clara, and hung to the view that
he could not be, while drenching in the sensation that he was: - and if so, what
were the Powers above but a body of conspirators? He paid Lætitia that
compliment. He could not conceive the human betrayal of the secret. Clara's
discovery of it had set his common sense adrift.
    »The domestic affairs of the Dales do not concern me,« said Vernon.
    »And yet, my friend,« Dr. Middleton balanced himself, and with an air of
benevolent slyness, the import of which did not awaken Willoughby until too
late, remarked: »They might concern you. I will even add, that there is a
probability of your being not less than the fount and origin of this division of
father and daughter, though Willoughby in the drawing-room last night stands
accuse-ably the agent.«
    »Favour me, sir, with an explanation,« said Vernon, seeking to gather it
from Clara.
    Dr. Middleton threw the explanation upon Willoughby.
    Clara communicated as much as she was able in one of those looks of still
depth which say. Think! and without causing a thought to stir, take us into the
pellucid mind.
    Vernon was enlightened before Willoughby had spoken. His mouth shut rigidly,
and there was a springing increase of the luminous wavering of his eyes. Some
star that Clara had watched at night was like them in the vivid wink and
overflow of its light. Yet, as he was perfectly sedate, none could have
suspected his blood to be chasing wild with laughter
