"I'm sorry my pipe offends you!" said he, glancing at her glowing loveliness.
And here, because of her beauty and nearness he grew silent and finding he yet held part of his clay pipe, broken in his hasty ascent, he fell to turning it over in his fingers, staring at it very hard but seeing it not at all; whereat she fell to studying him, his broad shoulders and powerful hands, his clean-cut aquiline features, his tender mouth and strong, square chin. Thus, the Major, glancing up suddenly, eye met eye and for a long moment they looked on one another, then, as she turned away he saw her cheek crimson suddenly and she, aware of this, clenched her white fists and flushed all the deeper.
"'Tis abominable rude to—stare so!" she said, over her shoulder.
"You are the Lady Elizabeth Carlyon, I think?" he enquired.
"And then, sir?"
"Then you are well used to being stared at, methinks."
"At a distance, sir!"
Here the Major edged away a couple of inches.
"You have heard of such a person before, then?" she enquired loftily.
"I go to London—sometimes, madam, when I must and when last there I chanced to hear her acclaimed and toasted as the 'Admirable Betty'!" said he, frowning.