It gave each of them a queer start; but Viola rallied quickly, saying, kindly:
“Mr. Maxwell, I am sure.”
“At your service, Miss Van Lew,” he replied, with a distant, but most courteous bow, and a swift glance quickly withdrawn as he hurried to the door and passed out.
Viola went slowly up the broad steps to her own apartments, her fair cheeks burning with the blush that had colored them at his sudden glance.
“How silly I am—blushing like a school-girl under a stranger’s glance,” she thought, vexedly. “But really—what splendid, large black eyes! They gave me a positive thrill!”
CHAPTER XVI.
THE BRIDAL-EVE.
“It is the last token of love and of thee,
Thy once faith is broken, thou false one to me!
I think on the letters with which I must part—