“I seem to have heard your name before in connection with Canada,” said Mrs. Gladwyne, confusing it with his surname. “Ah, yes! Of course; it was George’s guide I was thinking of.” She turned to Millicent, adding in an audible aside: “I’ve a bad habit of forgetting. Forgive me, my dear.”
Everything considered, it was, perhaps, the most awkward thing she could have said; but Lisle’s bronzed face was imperturbable, and Gladwyne had promptly recovered his composure as he realized the mistake. Still, for a moment, he had been badly startled. Nobody noticed Nasmyth, which was fortunate, because his unnatural immobility would have betrayed him.
“I’d been expecting you both earlier; told you to come to dinner,” said his host.
Then he addressed Lisle.
“As my mother mentioned, I had once something to do with a man called Vernon, in Canada.”
Knowing what he did, Lisle fancied that Gladwyne’s indifferent tone had cost him an effort.
“It’s only my Christian name, as you have heard,” he explained.
“You were up in the bush with Nasmyth, were you not?”
“Yes,” answered Lisle. “I met him quite by chance in a Victoria hotel when I happened to have a few weeks at my disposal which I thought of spending in the wilds. When he heard that I intended making a trip through the northern part of the country and suggested that we should go together I was glad to consent.”
“Then you belong to Victoria?”