Meg knew well enough that Miss Linisfarne was close at hand, and, fearful lest her companion should make some allusion to her, hastily beckoned him away.
"Come up here, Dan. I wish to show you a very pretty lady."
"Yourself?" said he, laughing; whereat she frowned and stamped her foot.
"Why will you talk so! It is a Lady Ardleigh of the Restoration. She is----"
"A doll," said Dan, contemptuously, looking at the simpering beauty,--"a china doll. Surely you don't think her beautiful! She has no soul."
"What do you mean?"
"Mean? Why, that she has never loved. You can see it in her face."
"I have never loved, Dan, and I don't think myself a china doll, I assure you."
"Oh, but you are a----"
The words died away on Dan's lips, as a tall figure advanced slowly down the gallery. It was a woman who had once been very beautiful, but who was now a wreck of her former self. She looked steadily at Dan, and then glanced at Meg.