Above all other virtues he reverenced and admired stern unvarnished truth, and this strong element of her reticent nature had powerfully attracted him.
"Little girl, am I such a stony-hearted ogre?" A strangely genial smile wanned and brightened his usually grave cold face, and certainly at that moment Erle Palma showed one aspect of his nature never exhibited before to any human being.
"What a fascinating person this poor old Mrs. Mason must be; absolutely tempting you to disobedience. Does she not correspond with the saints in Oude?"
"If you mean Mr. Lindsay and his mother, she certainly hears from them occasionally."
"Why not phrase it Mrs. Lindsay and her son? Was it the dreadful news that malarial fever is epidemic at the Missions, or that the Sepoys are threatening another revolt, that destroyed your appetite, unfitted you for the social amenities at the dinner-table, and gave you heart-ache?"
"If there is such bad news, I did not hear it Mrs. Mason was not at home."
"Indeed! Then whom did you see?"
"When I ascertained she was absent, I had already sent the carriage away, and I came home, after stopping a few moments in —— Square."
She grew very white as she spoke, and he saw her lips quiver.
"Regina, what is the matter?"