"Clive, why didn't you tell me about that girl?" she began, dashing into the subject without preamble.
He was honestly bewildered by the suddenness of the inquiry. He did not think of connecting Leonora West with it.
"I do not know what you are talking about, Aunt Lydia," he answered.
She gave him a keen glance to see if he was trying to deceive her; but his fair, handsome face expressed only the most honest surprise. "I mean that West girl—the housekeeper's niece," she said. "Why didn't you tell me about her when you came home?"
He reflected a moment, and then answered:
"I did, Aunt Lydia. You asked me if I had brought Leonora West to the housekeeper, and I told you that I had done so. Then you asked me if she were troublesome, and I told you that she was. Do you not remember?"
"Yes; but you should have told me more about her. It is very strange that you kept it all to yourself," she said, regarding him suspiciously, and nowise pleased when she saw the deep flush that reddened his face.
"What was it you wished me to tell you?" he inquired, coldly.
"Why, that she was grown up instead of a child, as I thought, and—and—that she was pretty—rather—and accomplished beyond her station," wrathfully said Lady Lancaster.