“I rely upon you not to let any one have a suspicion of this unfortunate affair,” urged Frank Amberley.
Lois assured him she would keep the matter a profound secret. She longed to get away to the solitude of her own chamber, there to reflect on what she had heard; but could think of no excuse. A strange, unaccountable sinking of the heart oppressed her.
“Why do I thus think about one who is a stranger to me, and can never be aught else?” she asked herself. “I must dismiss the subject from my mind forever after this night.”
And yet she caught herself wondering when she should again meet Paul Desfrayne, and planning how she should behave to him.
Frank Amberley watched her face with all the eager devotion of a man hopelessly, irretrievably in love, utterly unconscious that the bright eyes of the pretty country girl in white muslin and blue ribbons wandered many times his way. It was with difficulty that he restrained a passionate, plainly worded avowal of his love and adoration, and resisted the desire to ask Lois if there was any chance of his being able to win the slightest return of his all-engrossing passion.
He was pretty confident that up to this time she had not cared specially for any one, and he believed it to be perfectly impossible that any other human being could love her as deeply, as truly as he did.
A few moments more, and he might have tempted his fate, and might have gained some answer leading him to hope; but the door of the center drawing-room opened, and Lady Quaintree came through the silken archway between the two salons.
Her ladyship was ill pleased to see Lois and Frank together, and dissatisfied to notice that Gerald appeared much taken with the lively, piquant Blanche Dormer, who was playing with a not altogether unskilful hand at the pleasant game of flirtation. It would not suit the inclination of Lady Quaintree did Gerald fall in love with and marry this young girl, even if she did carry twenty thousand pounds as her dot.
Without appearing inhospitable—nay, she seemed to be sorry to break up the little party—she made it apparent to Frank that it would be only kind and considerate of him to take an early departure, in order that the ladies might rest after their hurried journey.
Turn which way she would, Lois could not rid herself of the haunting figure of Paul Desfrayne. When she gained her own room, she sat down at the foot of her bed to think.