Their league, if any subsisted between them, was of a tacit and understood nature, operating on their actions without any necessity of speech.

I recollected, however, on reflection, that I had once or twice discovered signs pass betwixt them, which I had at the time supposed to bear reference to some hint concerning Miss Vernon's religious observances, knowing how artfully the Catholic clergy maintain, at all times and seasons, their influence over the minds of their followers.

But now I was disposed to assign to these communications a deeper and more mysterious import.

Did he hold private meetings with Miss Vernon in the library?
was a question which occupied my thoughts; and if so, for what purpose?
And why should she have admitted an intimate of the deceitful Rashleigh to such close confidence?
These questions and difficulties pressed on my mind with an interest which was greatly increased by the impossibility of resolving them.

I had already begun to suspect that my friendship for Diana Vernon was not altogether so disinterested as in wisdom it ought to have been.