Sometimes Nell would say: "Lady Wolfer is in her room. Shall I tell her you are here?" and he would make haste to reply:
"Oh, no; not at all necessary. She may be very much engaged. Besides, I am just going out."
Grave and reserved, not to say grim, though he was, Nell got to like him. His pomposity was on the surface, and his stiffness and hauteur were but the mannerisms with which some men are cursed. At the end of the week he startled her by alluding to the salary which he had offered her in his letter.
"I am afraid you thought it a very small sum, Miss Lorton," he said. "I myself considered it inadequate; but I asked a friend what he paid in a similar case, and I was, quite wrongly, I see, guided by him."
"It is quite enough," said Nell, blushing. "I think it would have been fairer if you had not paid me anything—at any rate, to start with."
"We will, if you please, increase it to one hundred pounds," he said, ignoring her protest. "I beg you will not refuse; in fact, I shall regard your acceptance as a favor."
He rose to leave the room before Nell could reply, and Lady Wolfer, entering with her usual rapidity, nearly ran against him. He begged her pardon with extreme courtesy, and was passing out, when she stopped him with a:
"Oh, I'm glad I've seen you. Will the twenty-fourth do for the dinner party? Are you engaged for that night? I'm not, I think."
The earl's grave eyes rested on her pretty, piquant face as she consulted her ivory tablets, but his gaze was lowered instantly as she looked up at him again.
"No," he said. "Is it a large party?"