He looked at the graceful black figure with its head bowed on Mrs. West's plump shoulder, and said, curtly:
"Miss West is unnecessarily alarmed. She has seen no one or nothing but myself. It was the sight of me that alarmed her."
"Oh, hush! I did not mean to tell her!" cried Leonora through her sobs.
There was a note of warning in her voice; but in his vexation he did not heed it.
Mrs. West was looking at him anxiously.
"Of course, she would not have been frightened at the sight of you, my lord!" she exclaimed.
"I—was not frightened at anything—I was only angry," Leonora said, lifting her head at this moment, and hushing her low sobs into silence. "He had no right, Aunt West," she added, incoherently.
"No right!" echoed the good woman, looking from one to the other in amazement. "Why, what has he done, my dear?"
"Nothing; only looked over my shoulder into the water—and—and frightened me. Please don't think me silly, Aunt West. I think I'm nervous to-night. Let us go," said the girl, without looking at the tall, handsome form standing so near her.