O no, it was nothing like that; the reason for her change of manner was quite different!' So timid was Charlotte in Somerset's presence, that her timidity at this juncture amounted to blameworthiness.

The distressing scene which must have followed a clearing up there and then of any possible misunderstanding, terrified her imagination; and quite confounded by contradictions that she could not reconcile, she held her tongue, and nervously looked out of the window.
'I have heard that Miss Power is soon to be married,' continued Somerset.
'Yes,' Charlotte murmured.

'It is sooner than it ought to be by rights, considering how recently my dear father died; but there are reasons in connection with my brother's position against putting it off: and it is to be absolutely simple and private.' There was another interval.

'May I ask when it is to be ?' he said.
'Almost at once--this week.' Somerset started back as if some stone had hit his face.
Still there was nothing wonderful in such promptitude: engagements broken in upon by the death of a near relative of one of the parties had been often carried out in a subdued form with no longer delay.
Charlotte's station was now at hand.

She bade him farewell; and he rattled on to the building he had come to inspect, and next to Budmouth, whence he intended to cross the Channel by steamboat that night.
He hardly knew how the evening passed away.