"Don't think of too many at a time, Sidney," she warned him with a smile.
"No, no, each in its proper place! One done, t'other come on, you know!"
He stood looking down on her with a jovial confident smile—and she liked it. His bold glance of admiration did not displease or alarm her. She was quite ready to be told what the glance said; but she was not ready to say anything in reply yet. But it was evident that some day she would be asked for a reply.
And it seemed evident too in what direction the current of her life was setting. With a smile for this and a sigh for that, and a wrinkle of the brow over this-and-that, she went back to the drawing-room and gave old Sarradet his gin-and-water.
[CHAPTER XVI]
A SHADOW ON THE HOUSE
"So here you are—at Hilsey at last!" said Bernadette.
"Yes, and, I say, what a jolly old place it is!" He paused for a moment. "I very nearly didn't come at all, though."
She looked at him in amused surprise. "What was the counter-attraction?"