Burden got out the exquisite dress. The flush which had risen to her mistress' face was reflected in her own. This Miss Lorton had helped to capture her beloved, her "martyred" Ted, and he was going to be avenged!
CHAPTER XL.
After Luce had swept from the room, Drake remained for a minute or two thinking the thoughts that a man must think under such circumstances; then he went slowly down to the drawing-room.
The countess was watching and waiting for him, and she looked up at his grave countenance anxiously as he came toward her.
"It is all right," he said, in his quiet way; "she is going at once."
His composure, the Angleford impassiveness which always came to their aid in moments of danger and difficulty, impressed her; she drew a breath of relief, and signed to the butler, who was hovering about awaiting her signal. "Dinner is served, my lady," he announced solemnly; and Drake gave the duchess his arm, and the company went into the dining room in pairs "like the animals into Noah's Ark," as Dick whispered to Miss Angel, who, to his great delight, he was taking in.
It was a large party, and a brilliant one. The great room in the glory of its new adornment was worthy of the house and its guests. If the truth must be told, Nell was at first a little nervous, though it was not her first experience, as we know, of an aristocratic dinner party. She was seated on the left of Drake, and on pretense of moving one of her glasses, he succeeded in touching her hand, and, as he did so, he looked at her as a man looks who sees joy before him and an abiding happiness; then he turned and talked to the duchess, for he knew that Nell would like to be left alone for a few minutes.
It was impossible for any party, however large and aristocratic, over which the countess presided, to be dull, and very soon they were all talking, and some of them laughing, for there were two young persons present, at any rate, who were by no means overawed by the splendor of the appointments or the rank of the guests. Dick would have found it possible to be merry at a Quakers' meeting, and Miss Angel, though she tried to preserve a demure, not to say repressive, mood, very soon yielded to Dick's light-hearted influence; and not only she, but those near them, were kept by him in ripples of laughter.
It was just what Drake wanted, and he looked down the table toward Dick with approval and gratitude.