"My dear gyurl!" he murmured. "You make your poor old father a proud and happy man. My own gyurl!"
She glanced at Lady Angleford warningly, and going up to her, took her arm and murmured sweetly:
"Let us go upstairs together, dear."
Lady Angleford looked at her with a meaning smile.
"How changed you have suddenly become, Luce!" she said. "Where are all your yawns gone? One would think you had heard news!"
Luce turned her face with a radiant smile.
"Perhaps I have," she said, in a low voice. "I—I will tell you—to-morrow!"
They parted at the door of Lady Angleford's room, Lady Luce's being farther down the corridor. Next to Lady Angleford's was the suite which had been prepared for Drake, and he came out of the room which adjoined the one she used as a dressing room as she was going into it.
"I'm sorry if my absence to-day was inconvenient, countess," he said.
"Not in the least! Everybody was disposed of; indeed, I was so free that Lady Wolfer and I went for a long drive. How changed she is! I don't know a happier woman! And she has given up all that woman's rights business."