He went red and white, and hot and cold. He lifted his hat, which he was wearing, having come in through the glass-doors, and politely murmured some words that sounded like "I beg your pardon:" but he did not attempt to touch her offered hand. And then he turned and traversed the room back to the garden. It seemed as though she had received her death-blow. There could no longer be any doubt or misapprehension after this, as to what the future was to be. And Ellen Adair crept into the empty drawing-room, and leaned her aching brow against the window frame. Presently Matilda North entered. The young lady had her curiosity even as her mother, and fancied some one was in sight. "What are you looking at, Miss Adair?" "Nothing," answered Ellen, lifting her head. And in truth she had not been looking out at all. "Ah! I see," significantly spoke Miss North. Walking slowly side by side along a distant path, went Captain Bohun and Miss Dallory. Matilda, acting on a hint from madam, would not lose the opportunity. "Captain Bohun is losing no time, is he?" "In what way?" inquired Ellen. "Don't you know that they are engaged? He is to marry Miss Dallory. We had all kinds of love passages, I assure you, when he was ill at my uncle's, and she was there helping me to nurse him." It was a wicked and gratuitous lie: there had been no "love passages" or any semblance of them. But Ellen believed it. "Do you say they are engaged?" she murmured. "Of course they are. It will be a love match too, for he is very fond of her--and she of him. I think Richard was once a little bit touched in that quarter; but Arthur has won. Sir Nash is very pleased at Arthur's choice; and mamma is delighted. They are both very fond of Mary Dallory." And that ceremony, all but completed, only a few weeks ago in the church at Eastsea!--and the ring and licence she held still!--and the deep, deep love they had owned to each other, and vowed to keep for ever--what did it all mean? Ellen Adair asked the question of herself in her agony. And as her heart returned the common-sense answer--fickleness: faithlessness--she felt as if a great sea were sweeping away hope and peace and happiness. The iron had entered into her soul. CHAPTER XXII. TANGLED THREADS. It was a curious position, that of some of the present inmates of Dallory Hall. Sir Nash Bohun, who went down to accompany Arthur more than anything else, and who had not intended to remain above a day or two, stayed on. The quiet life after the bustle of London was grateful to him; the sweet country air really seemed to possess some of the properties madam had ascribed to it. Sir Nash was to go abroad when the genial springtime should set in, and try the effect of some medicinal waters. Until then, he was grateful for any change, any society that served to pass away the time.