All of which stirred up Christina’s cold, selfish nature into something like a tumult.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE TRAGEDY ON THE POLO GROUNDS.
It was, after all, by no woman’s wile that Christina brought Valentine Ambleton to Sunstead once again.
While she was spending her days in fretting over her fate, and chafing sorely at the failure of her scheme to force the man she called her enemy to become her friend, destiny—a sad and tragic destiny—hastened this period of inactivity to a close.
One hot summer evening, weeks after Grace’s departure from Dynechester, her butler sought Lady Wentworth as she sat listlessly on the lawn alone, and informed her that Mr. Ambleton desired to see her. Christina was wide awake in an instant; she looked at the servant incredulously.
“Mr. Sacha Ambleton, I suppose you mean. Tell him to come to me out here.”
“No, my lady, not Mr. Sacha, but Mr. Ambleton,” the man answered.
Christina rose to her feet, and then sank back in her chair again, the folds of her soft diaphanous black gown falling gracefully about her.
“Ah!” she said, quietly enough, though her pulses were beating rapidly, “ah! just so. Well, I will see Mr. Ambleton out here. Tell him to come through the conservatory, and, James, bring coffee and some cigars.”
She sat and watched for Valentine to appear through the open doorway of the conservatory.