CHAPTER XV.
"OH, GOD! I KNEW IT! YOU ARE—ISABEL!"
With a somewhat reluctant air, Emil Correlli offered his arm to his sister and led her toward the woman around whom a group of distinguished people had gathered, and whom she was entertaining with an ease and grace that proclaimed her perfectly at home among the crême de la crême of society.
She appeared not to perceive the approach of her hostess and her brother, but continued the animated conversation in which she was engaged.
A special observer, however, would have noticed the peculiar fire which began to burn in her beautiful eyes.
When Mr. Correlli presented his sister, she turned with fascinating grace, making a charming acknowledgment, although she did not offer her hostess her hand.
"You are very welcome, Mrs. Stewart," Mrs. Goddard remarked, in response to some words of apology for being a guest in the house without a previous acquaintance. "I only regret that we have not met before."
"Thanks; I, too, deplore the complication of circumstances which has prevented an earlier meeting," was the sweet-voiced response.
But there was a peculiar shading in the remark which, somehow, grated harshly upon Anna Goddard's ears and nerves.
"Who is she, anyhow?" she questioned within herself with a strange feeling of unrest and perplexity. "I never even heard of her until after Emil came; yet there is something about her that makes me feel as if we had met in some other sphere."