"I must. It's not in me to resist you, miss," said Susie, with a little

gesture of yielding. "But, mind me! the people hereabouts, the grand

folk up at the Hall, will take offence----"

"Let them!" said Celia. "But I don't think they will. They are all very

kind, even the Marquess."

Susie looked up swiftly.

"Is--is he here, at the Hall?" she asked.

"Yes," said Celia. "He came last night. I saw him; he is very kind,

though a very sad, melancholy man. You shall have the baby now. It's

cruel of me to have kept him so long. But I must hurry back; for I have

Advertisement..

so much work to do. I shall come again as soon as I can; and I'll speak

to Lady Gridborough about the christening, and arrange everything."

Susie went out to the gate with her, and was saying the last good-bye,

when the stillness was broken by the humming of a motor-car. In a cloud

of dust, an automobile came up the road; it was upon them almost in an

instant.

"That's the big car from the Hall," said Celia. "Why, it must have come

from the station, and that must be----"

As she spoke the car came abreast of them. In it were seated a fair,

good-looking man, with prominent eyes and loose lips, and beside him an

extremely pretty woman, clad daintily in a fashionable and expensive

travelling costume.

"----Yes, that must be Lord and Lady Heyton," finished Celia; and her

attention was so engrossed by the occupants of the car that she did not

see the sudden pallor which had fallen on the face of the girl beside

her, nor the swift gesture with which she drew the shawl over the

child's face and pressed it to her bosom, as if to hide it. She uttered

no cry, but a look of something like terror transformed her face; and,

with a quick movement, she turned and fled into the cottage. Celia

opened the garden gate and went on her way, half-suffocated by the dust

of the rapidly disappearing car.

As Celia entered the Hall, she was met by the odour of an Egyptian

cigarette. There was something unpleasantly pungent about it, and,

coming out of the fresh air, she, unconsciously, resented the too

obtrusive perfume; it recalled to her the atmosphere of a cheap Soho

restaurant, and shady foreigners with shifty glances. Such an atmosphere

was singularly inappropriate in that great hall, with its air of

refinement and dignity. She was making her way to the stairs, when the

man she had seen in the car came out of one of the rooms. The

objectionable cigarette was between his lips, his hands were thrust in

his pockets, there was a kind of swagger in his walk. He looked like a

gentleman, but one of the wrong kind, the sort of man one meets in the

lowest stratum of the Fast Set. Celia noted all this, without appearing

to look at him; it is a way women have, that swift, sideways glance

under their lashes, the glance that takes in so much while seeming quite

casual and uninterested.




Most Popular