"How glad I am that I found it! You must have dropped it as you came in. How careless of you!"
"No," he said, bravely; he could no more prevaricate before that sweet innocence than lie outright. "No, Lucy, I did not drop it just now. I parted with it a long while ago, and I have not seen it since until now."
Lucy gazed up at him open-eyed.
"Then how did it come here?" she asked, in an awestruck whisper. "To whom did you give it? A gentleman, of course?"
"No," he said, after a moment's hesitation. "It was to——."
Before he could add 'a woman,' a voice low and clear, a voice which thrilled him and awoke the echo—thank God, for Lucy's sake—only the echo—of his old passion, was heard in the doorway.
"Lucy, are you there?"
It was Leslie's voice! Ralph Duncombe started, and in the shock of surprise seized Lucy's arm.
"Who is that?" he breathed, in a hushed whisper, his eyes fixed on the doorway.