Lady Lenore made a gesture of haughty indifference.
"Call her what you please," she said, coldly, insolently. "I did refer to her."
"And to the man in whom you take an interest?" he said, with an insolence that matched her own.
The dark red flamed in her face, and she looked at him.
"That is a side of the question which we will not enter upon, if you please, Mr. Adelstone," she said.
"I am to understand, then," he said, with quiet scorn, "that you came here this evening by your own appointment to do me a service. Is that so?"
He had roused her at last.
"Understand, think what you will," she said, in a low, strange voice; "let there be no parley between us. I wanted to see you and sent for you, and you are here, let that suffice. You wish to prevent the marriage of Lord Leycester and the lady whom we saw him with at this spot. You speak confidently of your power to do so; you will have a speedy opportunity of testing that power, for Lord Leycester intends marrying her to-morrow, or at latest the next day."
He did not start, neither did he turn pale, but he looked at her calmly, fixedly; she knew that her shaft had told home, and she stood and watched and enjoyed.
"How do you know this?" he asked, quietly, in a very low voice.