Lord John was laughing as he went towards the lobby. 'You felt we couldn't have borne the disappointment!'
'I felt I couldn't,' said the girl, standing there with a rapt look.
CHAPTER XV
She did not look round when Dick Farnborough ran in from the garden, saying: 'Is it—is it really?' For just then on the opposite side of the great hall, the centre of a little buzz of welcome, Stonor's tall figure appeared between host and hostess.
'What luck!' Farnborough said under his breath.
He hurried back and faced the rest of the party who were clustered outside the window trying to look unconcerned.
'Yes, by Jove!' he set their incredulity at rest. 'It is!'
Discreetly they glanced and craned and then elaborately turned their backs, pretending to be talking among themselves. But, as though the girl standing there expectant in the middle of the hall were well aware of the enormous sensation the new arrival had created, she herself contributed nothing to it. Stonor came forward, and she met him with a soft, happy look, and the low words: 'What a good thing you managed it!' Then she made way for Mrs. Heriot's far more impressive greeting, innocent of the smallest reminder of the last encounter!