“No; he is not out of town. He had another engagement to-night, but he said he would drop in in season to take us home,” Lord Carrol’s mother returned. “Ah! there he is now,” she added, as she saw him approaching, and her face lighted with both pride and pleasure.
He appeared to be greatly surprised to find Mrs. Richards there, but greeted her politely, although she felt the restraint in his manner which he could not quite conceal.
She beckoned to Josephine, who was not far distant, and presented her, with a feeling of pride in her brilliant beauty that she did not try to hide.
He shook hands with her, though his face flushed as he remembered the awkward position in which she had placed him at Yonkers by misrepresenting the motive of his visit there.
“You did not come to see us again before leaving America, after all,” she said, in tones of playful reproach, when they had exchanged greetings.
“No; my time was so fully occupied that I found it impossible to make any calls,” he returned, a shade of sadness coming into his fine eyes as he thought of how his time had been employed and the unhappiness it had caused him.
“You received my little package, I perceive,” Josephine said, glancing at the cameo upon his hand, and with a flush rising to her cheeks.
“Yes; did you not receive my acknowledgment of it?” he asked, in surprise.
“No; I have never heard anything from you,” she answered, with downcast eyes.
“But I wrote, thanking you. You must have thought me lacking in courtesy,” Lord Carrol said, regretfully.