"You are like Miles, Sir Edgar. No matter where he went, he always said coming home was the most pleasant part of the day."
Then, with her white, jeweled hand, she poured out my coffee, and certainly the aromatic fragrance was very pleasant.
"You must be like Miles in something else," she said. "He always declared that I made better coffee than anyone else—better than he tasted in all his travels. Do you not think the same?" And she looked at me as anxiously as though the making of coffee to please me were the chief aim of life.
"Was Sir John at home?" she asked, after a few minutes.
Then I had to describe my day, to give her a history of the coming fair, in which she affected great interest.
"I should like to go very much," she said. "I have read in fashionable novels of fancy fairs, but I have never seen one. Are you going, Sir Edgar?"
"Lady Thesiger has asked my assistance, and I have promised it. We shall make up a party. If you wish to go, Coralie, you shall."
She thanked me, and when I had finished my coffee, rang the bell and ordered it to be cleared away.
"I am going to sing to you," she said. "I know you are tired. Throw your head back, shut your eyes and listen. Do not speak, because I am going to weave a charm for you."
I declare before Heaven that when I remember the magic of that charm my heart beats even now with fear!