The handsome young lord stood looking at the fair face and mute red
lips with a half chagrined air for a moment; then he said, hastily:
"Good-day, Miss West. I see how disagreeable my presence is, so I will
leave you to your meditations among the tombs. I hope none of those old
fellows will come out of their graves to haunt you for your scorn of
their descendant.
"I hope not, indeed!" said Leonora, and then she laughed.
He turned back at the sound of that laugh.
Perhaps she was relenting.
She had risen, indeed, and was holding out to him the sketch he coveted.
"Take it," she said. "I was in a bad temper just now. Lady Adela may
have it."
"Will you, indeed, be so kind?" he exclaimed, radiant with pleasure.
"But, indeed, you must not give your whole morning's work for nothing.
Let me--"
He put his hand into his pocket and brought out a shining gold piece.
"Thank you, my lord," said Leonora, demurely, as she received the money
into her palm. "I shall be able to buy myself a new dress with this."
"You are not angry?" he said, struck by an inexplicable something in
her tone.
"Oh, no; I am very glad to be so well paid for my work," she answered,
with the same demure air; and then she said, suddenly: "Good-morning,"
and walked away from him.
He followed her.
"Are you going home alone, Miss West?"
"No; I have a small escort hereabouts, if he has not eaten my lunch and
run away," she replied, carelessly.
"Johnnie Dale? No, he has not run away. You will find him in the lane,
where I saw him as we came through. Shall I find him for you?"
"No, thank you. Doubtless Lady Adela is impatient at your long stay,"
she said, walking coolly away from him.
"The deuce! I expect she is. I had quite forgotten the daughter of a
hundred earls," he said to himself, ruefully. "I forget everything with
Leonora West. She would not answer my question, yet I would give the
world to know what she really thinks. If I had not promised De Vere a
fair field, I would try to find out what she thought before the sun
sets. How brusque she is! Ah!"
The last exclamation was wrung from him by seeing Leonora lift her hand
as she walked across the field.
Something bright and shining flashed in the air a moment, then fell
into the grass.
"She has thrown my gold piece away like so much dross! What does she
mean?" he asked himself.
But the question was one not easily answered, so he returned to his
friends, who were chattering like so many magpies among the ruins.
"We thought you had gone back home, you were so long away," said Lady
Adela, looking rather cross.
"Now I shall have to invent some fiction to account for my long
absence," he thought, pulling vexedly at his long mustache. "Deuce take
the women! They pull one this way and that way, until one is out of
patience!"
And while he was hastily concocting an excuse, Leonora was walking
rapidly through the lanes and fields with little Johnnie, on her way
back to the Hall.
"I'm glad you came back so soon," Mrs. West said; "for some of the
young people have gone over to the ruins, I hear, and I was afraid they
would see you."
"They did see me; but I came away soon after," the girl answered,
carelessly.
"They are going to have a picnic at the ruins to-morrow, it seems,"
pursued her aunt. "Lady Lancaster and all of them are going. So the
house will be empty, and I can take you all over it to-morrow, if you
like."
"Thank you; I shall like it very much," said Leonora, rather
apathetically.
"And your picture of the ruins--did you get it, my dear?" pursued Mrs.
West, suddenly remembering the sketch.
"Oh, yes; I finished it."
"Aren't you going to let me see it?"
"I'm sorry, aunt, but I sold it as soon as I finished it. I'll go back
some day and make another for you."
"You sold it! To whom, my dear?" exclaimed the good soul, surprised.
"Why, to Lord Lancaster," Leonora answered, indifferently.
But Mrs. West was delighted. She thought that her niece must be very
accomplished, indeed, if she could make a picture that Lord Lancaster
would be willing to buy.
"He was very kind, especially after the way she behaved the other
night. It was quite silly. I did not think Leonora would be so easily
frightened. It is a wonder that Lord Lancaster was not offended," she
thought.