"I am not wanted, evidently," thought the old lady.
She noiselessly closed the door again and left the lovers by themselves.
Horace returned, with unwise persistency, to the question of the deferred marriage.
At the first words that he spoke she drew back directly—sadly, not angrily.
"Don't press me to-day," she said; "I am not well to-day."
He rose and looked at her anxiously.
"May I speak about it to-morrow?"
"Yes, to-morrow."
She returned to the sofa, and changed the subject.
"What a time Lady Janet is away!" she said.
"What can be keeping her so long?"
Horace did his best to appear interested in the question of Lady Janet's prolonged absence.
"What made her leave you?" he asked, standing at the back of the sofa and leaning over her.
"She went into the library to write a note to her nephew.
By-the-by, who is her nephew?"
"Is it possible you don't know?"
"Indeed, I don't."
"You have heard of him, no doubt," said Horace.
"Lady Janet's nephew is a celebrated man."
He paused, and stooping nearer to her, lifted a love-lock that lay over her shoulder and pressed it to his lips.
"Lady Janet's nephew," he resumed, "is Julian Gray."
She started off her seat, and looked round at him in blank, bewildered terror, as if she doubted the evidence of her own senses.
Horace was completely taken by surprise.
"My dear Grace!" he exclaimed; "what have I said or done to startle you this time?"
She held up her hand for silence.
"Lady Janet's nephew is Julian Gray," she repeated; "and I only know it now!"
Horace's perplexity increased.
"My darling, now you do know it, what is there to alarm you?" he asked.
(There was enough to alarm the boldest woman living—in such a position, and with such a temperament as hers.
To her mind the personation of Grace Roseberry had suddenly assumed a new aspect: the aspect of a fatality.
It had led her blindfold to the house in which she and the preacher at the Refuge were to meet.
He was coming—the man who had reached her inmost heart, who had influenced her whole life!
Was the day of reckoning coming with him?)
"Don't notice me," she said, faintly. "I have been ill all the morning.
You saw it yourself when you came in here; even the sound of your voice alarmed me.
I shall be better directly.
I am afraid I startled you?"
"My dear Grace, it almost looked as if you were terrified at the sound of Julian's name!
He is a public celebrity, I know; and I have seen ladies start and stare at him when he entered a room.
But you looked perfectly panic-stricken."
She rallied her courage by a desperate effort; she laughed—a harsh, uneasy laugh—and stopped him by putting her hand over his mouth.
"Absurd!" she said, lightly. "As if Mr. Julian Gray had anything to do with my looks!
I am better already.
See for yourself!"
She looked round at him again with a ghastly gayety; and returned, with a desperate assumption of indifference, to the subject of Lady Janet's nephew.
"Of course I have heard of him," she said.
"Do you know that he is expected here to-day?
Don't stand there behind me—it's so hard to talk to you.
Come and sit down."
He obeyed—but she had not quite satisfied him yet.