Something disturbed her in his regard; it was not easy to meet, so full of magnetic emanation. Amaryllis was conscious that she no longer felt very calm—she longed to know What his dreams could be.
"Yes—but if I told you, you would send me away."
It seemed that he could read her desire. "I shall order myself to be gone presently, because the interest which you cause me to feel would interfere with work which I have to do."
"And your dreams? Tell them first?" she knew that she was playing with fire.
He looked down now, and she saw that he was not going to gratify her curiosity.
"My noblest dream is for the regeneration of a nation—on that I have ordered my thoughts to dwell. For the others, the time is not yet for me to tell you of them—it may never come. Now answer me, have you yet seen your new home, Ardayre?"
"No, but why should you be interested in that? It seems strange that you, a Russian, should even know that there is such a place as Ardayre!"
"Continue—I know that it is a wonderful place, and that your husband loves it more than his life."
Amaryllis pouted slightly.
"He does indeed! Perhaps I shall grow to do so also when I know it; it is the family creed. Sir James—my late father-in-law—was the only exception to this rule."