calmness she remained still and silent, looking at her visitor with a
scornful dignity. Lady Haldwell presently rose,--she could not endure
the furnace of that look,--and said good-bye. She turned towards the
door. Mrs. Armour remained immovable. At that instant, however, some
one stepped from behind a large screen just inside the door. It was
Richard Armour. He was pale, and on his face was a sternness the like
of which this and perhaps only one other woman had ever seen on him. He
interrupted her.

"Lady Haldwell has a fine talent for irony," he said, "but she does not
always use it wisely. In a man it would bear another name, and from a
man it would be differently received." He came close to her. "You are a
brave woman," he said, "or you would have been more careful. Of course
you knew that my mother and sister were not at home?"

She smiled languidly. "And why 'of course'?"

"I do not know that; only I know that I think so; and I also think that
my brother Frank's worst misfortune did not occur when Miss Julia
Sherwood trafficked without compunction in his happiness."

"Don't be oracular, my dear Richard Armour," she replied. "You are
trying, really. This seems almost melodramatic; and melodrama is bad
enough at Drury Lane."

"You are not a good friend even to yourself," he answered.

"What a discoverer you are! And how much in earnest! Do come back to
the world, Mr. Armour; you would be a relief, a new sensation."