CHAPTER VI
'Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes
Between the pass and fell incenséd points of mighty opposites.
—Hamlet V. 2.
Less than twenty minutes after the despatch of her missive—twenty minutes which seemed to Julia more like twenty cycles of immeasurable time—Sir John Ayloffe was announced.
He entered very composedly. Having been formally announced by the servant, he waited with easy patience that the man should close the doors and leave him alone with his fair cousin.
He scarcely touched her fingers with his lips and she said quickly:
"'Twas kind to come at once. You were at home?"