He looked at her with a sinister scrutiny.
"I beg your pardon. I did not know he was a friend of yours," he said.
She raised her eyes and looked at him steadily.
"Lord Leycester is no friend of mine," she said, quietly.
"I am glad of it," he responded.
Stella's eyes darkened and deepened in a way peculiar to her, and her color came. It was true that Lord Leycester was no friend of hers, she had but seen and spoken with him by chance, and for a few moments; but who was this Mr. Adelstone that he should presume to be glad or sorry on her account?
He was quick to see that he had made a slip, and quick to recover himself.
"Pray forgive me if I have presumed too far upon our slight acquaintance, but I was only thinking at that moment that you had been so short a time in England as to be ignorant of people who are well known to us with whom they have lived, and that you would not know Lord Leycester's real character."
Stella inclined her head gravely. Something within her stirred her to take up arms in the absent man's defense; the one word "infamous," stuck and rankled in her mind.
"You said that Lord Leycester was 'infamous,'" she said, with a grave smile. "Surely that is too strong a word."