She had watched him narrowly while she spoke, and saw by the change of his countenance that the bait had taken, and so she was not deceived as to the motive of his accepting when he replied—
"Asked thus as a favour and a farewell, I cannot do otherwise than say in the recognised form, 'I shall be most happy to accept Mrs. Elton's kind invitation.'"
"Very well, then, it is agreed that you will come. Of course you will receive a formal invitation, but you need not answer it, as I shall tell mamma that you have already accepted. And now, Mr. Earnscliffe, as you are almost an habitué of these underground regions, perhaps you can tell me if we have nearly done them?"
"Well, I have not been paying much attention, but from the time we have been here"—looking at his watch—"I should say yes. I see we are coming to a chapel, probably that of St. Cornelius, which is generally the last."
It was the chapel of St. Cornelius, as he had said, and there it was that Helena received the glance from Mary, which she rightly understood to be an intimation that her flirting had better come to an end for that day. When they were once more in the passage, Helena succeeded in getting close to her sister and whispered, "You are an angel, Mary!"
"Don't be silly, Lena," answered Mary, almost roughly. Perhaps the being called an angel just then, when she knew how much the reverse of it she was, irritated her.
"But you are indeed an angel, and I know you will carry your angelic sisterly charity a little farther by asking Harry to our ball; then, when you tell mamma that you have asked him, it will be too late for her to object. You will ask him, Mary, will you not?"
"Yes," was the curt reply; and she added, "And now do be quiet; surely you have talked enough to-day."
"Not nearly enough, you dear dame Sagesse. I am quite ready to begin again."
"Then I beg you will not do so; and be pleased, Lena, to give up that absurd habit of calling me such names as angel and Sagesse—you ought to know how inapplicable those terms are to me, and they annoy me."