It was a word of command, for all its musical gentleness, and Stella, woman-like, stopped.
"I am going away," he said, not abruptly, but with calm directness. "If you have only come to-night I shall not be able to learn your name; before I go, will you tell it me?"
Stella smiled.
"Why not?" he said, as she hesitated.
"My name is Stella Etheridge, I am Mr. Etheridge's niece."
"Stella!" he repeated. "Stella! Thank you. I shall not forget. My name," and he raised his hat with a simple gesture of proud humility, "is Wyndward—Leycester Wyndward."
"I know it," said Stella, and the next moment she could have called the impulsive words back again.
"You know it!" he said; "and came here only to-night! How is that?"
Stella's brows contracted, dark and full they met across her brow in true southern fashion, and lent a significant eloquence to her face; she would have given much to avoid answering.
"How is that?" he asked, his eyes fixed on hers.