"You cannot surely mean——"
"He is perfectly bewitched; and as I know you are quite unconscious of it, I fore warn you."
Margaret sat silent for some time, plunged in an uneasy reverie. This thing gave her a disagreeable shock for which she was not prepared. She inwardly reviewed her position at Hautville Park, and a cold chill of disappointment crept into her heart.
Must she leave her giddy darling, Lady Julie?
"I cannot believe it—I will not!" she exclaimed, with momentary fire. "His grace is not so foolish as to intend this thing. You exaggerate his emotions in regard to me."
The fairy-like form of my lady floated past the draperied door on the arm of Piermont, and as she passed, her eyes sought the pair in the cloister with visible triumph; then she turned to his grace again.
"You see," said Margaret, eagerly clinging to the first straw of hope, "they perfectly understand each other, and your warning is superfluous."
Falconcourt smiled, but dropped the subject, and applied himself with considerable relish to the task of entertaining my lady's companion.
As long as she could see his grace, the duke, and Lady Juliana amicably promenading, or revolving in each other's arms, she spoke well and admirably, but the instant that they parted, she became quite distrait, and nervously dreaded the appearance of the duke.
So agitated did she become with this threatened return before her eyes, that her face became white as chalk and her tones husky and indistinct.