“Ah!” she said, in a low voice; “that is it! One woman in a thousand! Tell me, Lord Cecil, and tell me the truth! I have been foolish and—and forward in coming here to you like this?”
If he had told to her the truth, Lord Cecil would certainly have been obliged to admit that she had been foolish; but what man in his position ever does make such an admission?
“I think you have done a very kind action, Lady Grace,” he said, gravely. “And—shame to him who thinks ill of it! Besides——” He hesitated.
She looked at him with an intelligent flash of her eyes.
“You were going to say that no one need know. You forget the cabman and the man outside.”
Lord Cecil bit his lip.
“At any rate, no one else need know,” he said. “The cabman does not know who you are——”
“I engaged him from just outside our own house,” she said, in a voice of concern.
“Cabmen are discreet,” he said, to reassure her.
“But the man—who is he, Lord Neville?”