Then when he saw the surprise on her face deepen into annoyance, he said:
"I beg your pardon. I did know some one once who was like you—oh, so like you!—some one who made me very unhappy. That is our dance. Lady Studleigh, smile, that I may know you have forgiven me."
She smiled, and they went away to the ball-room together.
CHAPTER LXIV.
A TERRIBLE TRIAL.
"Earle," said Lady Doris, "it seems so long since you left me."
She was standing in the ball-room with the countess. Her late partner, Lord Vivianne, had gone to fulfill his engagement elsewhere.
"It seems so long," she repeated.
And Earle, who knew every tone of her voice, detected something unusually sad in it. His face grew bright with happiness that she had missed him.
"I saw you dancing with the gentleman who admired you so greatly the other evening," he replied. "You seemed so interested in his conversation that I never dreamed you would miss me."