“Who is that?” she demanded, her face flushing with a sudden thought and fear.
“It comes from yonder villa. Did it startle you?” asked Sir Charles, regarding her disturbed manner with some surprise.
“A little—it was so quiet before.”
“I think it very fine,” he replied, stopping to listen again to the clear, beautiful tones.
“Who lives there?” Isabel asked, an anxious expression on her face.
“Lady Ruxley, an aged aunt of my mother’s.”
“Indeed! I thought she resided with you,” she said, wondering why a lady of such high degree should be living in what appeared to her such limited quarters.
She had heard of Lady Ruxley before, and knew that it was from her Sir Charles was to inherit a large amount of his property.
She had never met her, although she was quite curious about her, having heard much about her peculiarities.
“Lady Ruxley always makes her home with us while we are in town, but when we come to Vallingham Hall she prefers to be by herself, and a few years since she had this villa built, so as to escape the gayety and confusion which always reign there,” Sir Charles explained.