"I do remember you," said Mattie, gratefully.
Then Lord Linleigh interfered again.
"Estelle," he said, "we are just ten minutes behind our time. You would like to change your traveling dress."
She looked at him like one roused from a dream, hardly seeming at first to understand him; then she walked slowly from the room. Lord Linleigh followed her, leaving the two girls alone.
"I think she will like me," said Lady Doris, "and it will be really a boon to me to have such a graceful, high-bred lady in the house. I shall study her, imitate her. Now, Mattie, does she not, as I said before, seem to move to the hidden rhythm of some sweet music?"
"Yes, she gives me exactly that impression. But how pale she is, Doris, and her hands trembled. She looked as though she was going to faint."
"She is not strong—papa told me so—and traveling has perhaps tired her. Do you think she will like me, Mattie?"
The tone of voice was very anxious. Mattie looked up quickly.
"You will say I am full of foolish fancies, Doris, but do you know I could not help thinking that she loved you; she looked as though she did. Her eyes had quite a strange light in them as they rested on your face, and the expression on hers was wonderful."
"That is certainly all fancy," replied Doris. "I have only seen her twice in my life; it is not possible she can love me. Perhaps she thought I was not so bad-looking—she admires beauty in everything, I know; she told me so herself. She married papa, I suppose, for his handsome face."