And if he had been a coxcomb he would have detected the ring of suppressed eagerness in her voice.
“For a couple of days only. I am going abroad, and shall not probably return for three or four years—if then; so that I have a few arrangements to make with my steward. I shall let the Hall, if I can get a good tenant.”
“You cannot do better,” she said, with sudden, almost stern decision. “You have no right to live there, as it were, under false pretenses.”
“I really don’t understand you, Lady Gwendolyn, and must beg you will explain.”
“I did not understand you just now, Colonel Dacre; but I did not demand an explanation.”
“You had a perfect right to do so.”
“Possibly; but it is not my habit. If people take a pleasure in misjudging me——”
“A pleasure?” he interrupted vehemently. “Oh! if you only knew what it cost me last night to believe what I saw.”
“Then why did you believe it?”
“I could not help myself.”