"Is that you, Guy? How is it that you troubled to ring? Have you lost your key?"
Myra came, with outstretched hands, to greet him. "Welch, take Mr. Guy's coat, and we will have dinner served at once," she said to the man, and, turning to Guy, she continued rapidly:
"The Commandatore was called away on business, and he told me not to wait dinner. He expects to be back during the evening." Guy submitted, and followed her into the drawing-room.
"You are a stranger, Guy," she said. "I think it is downright mean of you to desert us."
Guy, meeting her glance, told himself that he had been egregiously mistaken in thinking that Myra had ever thought of him save as a brother.
"You don't seem to have suffered from my absence," he said lightly.
"Don't you think I have grown thin?" she answered. There was mockery in her tone.
Guy was glad to find her in so cheerful a mood. He smiled back at her, and for the first time looked at her with seeing eyes. She stood before him in the perfection of her young womanhood, glowing with health and youth and beauty. Truly she was beautiful. He wondered that he not realised how beautiful before. He did not know how carefully she had studied the part she intended to play. He had no idea that the gown, which adorned and but half concealed the contours of her figure, had been expressly designed for his allurement.
"I have never seen you looking so well," he answered.
She saw the admiration in his glance, but gave no sign of doing so, though her heart began to throb with hope.