They were silent for a moment or two; then she said, in the same voice, too low and soft to reach the old lady sitting at the other end of the room:
“And now shall I tell you what you are thinking about, Lord Cecil?”
“Don’t! I’m afraid!” he cried.
She laughed.
“You are wondering why I am here?”
His eyes replied in the affirmative for him.
“Because——But, wait! I am more clever even than you suppose! Shall I tell you what the marquis has been saying to you in the drawing-room; and why do you look so grim and gloomy?”
He did not answer.
She let her eyes rest upon his face with a serene and languid expression of amusement.
“Well, then, he has been advising you to marry me.”