Mr. Vernon rose to open the door for her—Nell noticed the act of courtesy—then sank down again.
"You don't want any more?" she said, looking at the paper on her knee.
"No, thanks," he said.
She tossed it onto a chair at the other end of the room.
"It is the most awful nonsense," she said, with a girlish frankness. "Why did you tell mamma that it was interesting?"
He met the direct gaze of the clear gray eyes, and smiled.
"Well—as it happened—it was," he said.
The clear gray eyes opened wider.
"What! All this gossip about the Earl of Angleford, and his nephew, Lord Selbie?"
He looked down, then raised his eyes, narrowed into slits, and fixed them above her head.