"What is it, papa?" she asked, as he laughed, gently.
"Earle is not coming, my dear. I am afraid you will be disappointed. He has sent a hurried little note to say that it is impossible. He is busy about his election, you know."
A few minutes afterward and Lord Vivianne, with a smile on his face, entered the room. Her fingers clutched the flowers she carried so tightly; the thought passed through her mind that if he could but have fallen dead over the threshold it would have been well for her.
"I shall see him if he comes in later on," she said.
A few minutes afterward he was seated by her side, and they were talking in the most friendly manner. The dinner passed over better than she had hoped. Earle was not mentioned nor did any one allude to Downsbury Castle. Lord Vivianne had contrived to secure a place by Lady Studleigh's side, and he did his best to please her. She could not help remarking how courteous and gallant was his manner in society. She contrasted it with what she had seen of him in Florence. When dinner was over, and they had gone into the drawing-room, he bent over the back of her chair.
"Lady Studleigh, have you forgotten my terrible outburst of the other day?"
"Yes," she replied; "I have seen much that is amusing since then."
"It was not very amusing to me," he said. "When a man lays bare the core of his heart, he does not do it for amusement."
"Not for his own, perhaps," she said; "but if he does it in your tragic style, he cannot help other people being amused."
"I could call you Doris," he said, "when you look at me with that piquant smile."