Miss Charteris smiled in replying, wishing Sir Harry had waited ten minutes longer.
"Promise me," said Ronald, detaining her, as Sir Harry passed on, "that you will give me one half hour tomorrow."
"I will do so," replied she.
"And you will listen to me, Miss Charteris?" he continued. "You will hear all I have to say?"
Valentine made no reply; several other people came, some to admire the alcove filled with ferns which drooped from the wall by which she was standing, others to breathe the fragrant air. She could not speak without being overheard; but, with a charming smile, she took a beautiful lily from her bouquet and held it out to him. They then went back into the ball room.
"He loves me," thought Valentine; and, as far as her calm, serene nature was capable of passionate delight, she felt it.
"She will befriend me," thought Ronald; "but why did she give me this flower?"
The most remote suspicion that Valentine had mistaken him—that she loved him—never crossed the mind of Ronald Earle. He was singularly free from vanity. Perhaps if he had a little more confidence in himself, the story of the Earles might have been different.
Lady Charteris looked at her daughter's calm, proud face. She had noticed the little interview in the conservatory, and drew her own conclusions from it. Valentine's face confirmed them there was a delicate flush upon it, and a new light shone in the lustrous eyes.
"You like Earlescourt?" said Lady Charteris to her daughter that evening, as they sat in her drawing room alone.