Lady Ruxley! Lady Ruxley! Where had she heard that name before, Brownie wondered.
It sounded familiar, and her thoughts went leaping back into the past.
Then all at once it came to her with a force which made her feel faint and sick, and she caught her breath with almost a sob.
Lady Ruxley was that woman at whose ball in London, more than forty years ago, that tragedy in her aunt’s life had occurred, and Lady Randal was, without a doubt, the hard-hearted Helen, and that same Helen Capel whose cruel plotting and intrigue had ruined the life of Miss Mehetabel Douglas.
And she had been receiving, and was still receiving, such heavy obligations from the hands of that wicked woman!
CHAPTER XXV
A LITTLE MATTER OF BUSINESS
“What’s the matter? You are not strong enough to walk! Go back and sit down,” commanded Lady Ruxley, as she saw the young girl first flush a deep crimson, and then grow white as a ghost.
But she quickly recovered herself.
“Thank you, but I am perfectly able to go; I was dizzy for a moment, though it has passed now,” she returned, quietly, although a tumult of feelings was raging in her bosom.
Giving her another searching glance, her ladyship passed on, and instead of going out at the door, as Brownie expected she would do, she proceeded toward the opposite side of the room, where a set of heavy satin damask curtains hung suspended from a richly gilded cornice.