Sebastian did not see Adrienne’s look, but he did see this one of Myles’s, and it made him feel suddenly grave and doubtful. In an instant he understood how things were with Myles: as to Adrienne’s feelings he was utterly in the dark. He remembered one morning, when she, relieved through his efforts of great anxiety, had clasped his hand, and, looking up at him with brimming eyes, had said, ‘There is nothing I would not do for you.’ They had been almost the last words she had said to him. The day afterwards he had lost her. He knew nothing of what she thought of him now, but he realised immediately that the stiff-necked young workman, whose pride and reserve resisted all his efforts to break through them, was over head and ears in love with the woman of whom he had been thinking, when he spoke to Helena Spenceley of ‘the nicest girl I ever knew.’ It might be preposterous: it might be that young, handsome, and more than ordinarily high-spirited and ambitious young workman had no business to fall in love with young ladies in a superior position in life; but all that did not prevent the fact that such an occurrence had taken place before, and would take place again. Sebastian knew it, and, reasoning from the interest he himself took in Myles, did not underrate the importance of the discovery he had made. ‘Have you seen the evening edition of the Manchester paper?’ he asked Myles, as he seated himself. ‘To-night? No.’ ‘The war news seems rather important. I hope our neutrality won’t be put in peril. It would be an everlasting disgrace to us if it were to be interrupted for a moment.’ ‘Yes, it would,’ assented Myles, dimly conscious that it was a superior sophistication which was able to converse thus easily upon foreign affairs--under the circumstances. ‘I suppose you take a great interest in the war too?’ said Sebastian, turning to Adrienne. ‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘Mr. Heywood and I have the audacity to dispute even with my uncle sometimes.’ ‘Mr. Blisset is your uncle?’ ‘Yes. Oh! I forgot you could not know; I live with him here. Have you known him before?’ ‘Never. But I find he is my tenant I came to see him on a matter of business and----’ ‘Will you step into the other room, sir?’ interrupted Brandon, coming in. Sebastian rose. ‘Shall I see you again?’ he asked, stooping a little towards Adrienne, who looked up to him with the same distinct, though well-repressed, agitation or excitement of some kind in her face. ‘It will depend upon how long you stay; I do not know,’ said she; and her voice was not calm and deliberate as usual. Myles sat still, his face composed, watching those two; realising her grace and beauty, and his charm of manner, and all those advantages in the background. No girl--he felt it keenly--need be ashamed of the fact that she had fallen captive to the wooing of Sebastian Mallory. His heart grew heavier and colder. ‘Then I will say good evening, in case I do not see you again,’ said Sebastian.