Certainly there was something strangely familiar to her in his voice and eyes.
But she did not intimate to him that such was the fact. Something deterred her, for Camille de Vere shrunk from the memory of one past episode in her life. If Lord Stuart belonged to that time, she would not dare recall it to his mind.
“But I need not be afraid. It is so long ago, and all is so different now. No one would know me for the same,” she said to herself, with a sensation of keen relief, though her hands turned icy cold with the bare memory of that never-to-be-forgotten time.
CHAPTER XIII.
Days passed, and no matter how angry it made the young girls at the hotel, no one could deny that Lord Stuart admired the married coquette more than any of the others. He was always to be found in Camille’s train. He danced with her at the balls; he was only too proud to carry her fan and her bouquet. If she had been free, she might have become Lady Stuart at any time, said the gossips.
It was no wonder that every one was indignant with the red-haired siren, for every single woman at the hotel had had hopes of his lordship. It was a shame for them to be disappointed for the sake of a married woman who had made a conquest of him simply to gratify her own vanity. Her dear five hundred friends said hard things about her behind her back—spiteful things that when they came to the ears of Norman de Vere made him grind his white teeth in fury.
He had watched Camille’s course with bitter disapproval all these weeks, but when he remonstrated with her, she flung her white arms about him, vowing that she loved him only, that she was but amusing herself with my lord to show those spiteful women her power.
“They are only angry because I have rivaled them, that is all,” she said, caressing him fondly, for she began to think that she had punished him enough.
He had suffered, and she knew it. Her wayward heart had been touched by the look she had sometimes seen in his eyes. She began to relent—to feel ashamed of herself.
“Camille, will you not come home now? The child is almost over the fever. I do not think there can be any fear of infection now,” he said, pleadingly.