"It is you who do not know what you ask, madam. Now let me take you to the ballroom."
She dropped his hand.
"My lord, to you—I speak to you. Will you allow this to happen?"
No change crossed my lord's pale smiling face.
"Sir Francis must act as he thinks fit, madam," he answered, and again touched the rose at his cravat. "Need it distress you?"
Francis Boyle spoke on a passionate exclamation.
"'Tis your presence distresses this lady, Lord Lyndwood. With the knowledge you have 'twas an insult that you sought to speak to her to-night, and that you stay is, my lord, insolence!"
The Earl turned at this slightly, with an air of utterly dismissing and despising the speaker. His eyes were wildly bright and daring in a face composed and colourless. He spoke directly to Miss Boyle, with no attempt to disguise the meaning in his voice.
"Will you speak for yourself, madam? Does not the gentleman pretend to overmuch? May not I see you back to the house?"