"Let me come to-morrow and explain," he said, humbly, coming nearer to her; but she turned her face resolutely from him.
"No," she said, icily; "it is quite unnecessary. Come, Aunt West."
She dragged the good woman away, and left him standing there in the moonlight, with a settled shadow upon his face.
"What a contretemps!" he said to himself, gloomily. "Ah! how little I thought, when I came out to-night to smoke that solitary cigar, that I should meet with such an adventure! How angry she was! Every time we meet we drift further away from each other!"
He went back to Lady Adela and his guests after awhile. The earl's daughter chided him because he had left them for that odious cigar.
"It was most ungallant!" she declared.
"You are mistaken. I went to consult that oracle, the Magic Mirror," he replied.
Lady Adela had heard the old legend. She smiled and bridled.
"Did you see your fate?" she asked him; and he answered, in a strange tone: