Lady Angleford nodded.
"Yes; and if she was engaged to him when you last saw her, that would
account for her happiness, notwithstanding her poverty. She is an
extremely pretty girl. I remember her quite well. I saw her at your
dinner party, you know. I hope she is going to marry a man worthy of
her. I'll go with you to see her to-morrow, if you'll let me."
Drake stood listening, his hands clasped behind his back, his face set
sternly. Every word they said caused him a pang of pain; and as he
listened, his mind went back to the happy weeks when Nell was engaged to
a man who certainly was not worthy of her.
Lady Angleford looked up at him.
"We were talking of Miss Lorton and her brother, Drake," she said.
"She's a kind of connection of Lady Wolfer's, and lived with them for a
time. I wish you would see the brother and see if he really is too young
to be the resident engineer. It would be so nice to have some one whom
one knows."
"I will see," he said, so grimly that Lady Wolfer glanced up at him with
some surprise; and, as he moved away, Lady Angleford looked after him
and sighed.
"How changed he is!" she said, in a low voice.
"In what way?" asked Lady Wolfer.
The countess was silent for a moment or two.
"He seems as if he were unhappy about something," she said; "as if
something were worrying him. I only saw him twice before he came into
the title, and though he was by no means 'loud' or effusive, he was
bright and cheerful; but now----I noticed the change the moment he came
into the Hall on his return. It seems so strange. He had cause for
anxiety then, for there was a chance of his losing Angleford; but now
one would think he possessed all that a man could desire."
"The vanity of human wishes, my dear!" said Lady Wolfer. "Something may
have happened while he was abroad," she suggested in a low voice.
"You mean a love affair? I don't think so."
The countess glanced toward the piano. She felt sure that Drake was
about to renew his engagement with Lady Luce, and she deemed him the
last man in the world to marry for the sake of "convenience."
Drake moved about the room restlessly, waiting for Luce to rise from the
piano; but she was playing a long piece--an interminable one, as it
seemed to him. Presently he felt for his pocket handkerchief, and, not
finding it, remembered leaving it on the dressing table where Sparling
had placed it. He went into the hall to send a servant for it; but there
was not one in sight, and he went quickly up the stairs and entered his
dressing room. He noticed that most of the electric lights were down,
and, disliking the gloom, went toward the row of switches. They were
fixed to the wall almost opposite Lady Angleford's dressing room, and as
his hand went up to them, he heard a slight sound in the room.