Slipping her arm through Dorothy's she led her from the room. When the two girls had gone husband and wife looked at each other. The man was the first to speak. "It's odd that she shouldn't know him as the Earl of Strathmoira--it strikes me that my gentleman's a queerer fish even than I thought." His wife eyed him for a moment, as if quizzically; then she turned aside, ostensibly to collect the papers on which she had been engaged. "Harold, have you ever heard of blindfold chess?" Under the circumstances it seemed a curious question--so it seemed to strike him. "Adela, what on earth do you mean?" "It occurs to me that we are about to act as pawns in a game of chess without even knowing who are the players." Her husband stared at her, as if with a total lack of comprehension. When he spoke his tone was irascible. "Adela, there seem to be puzzles enough in the air without your making them worse. Perhaps you'll be so good as to tell me what you may happen to mean." "I am not so sure that I know myself; only, as I looked at that girl's face, I had the queerest feeling." "Of what kind?" "I'm not fanciful--am I?" "I can't say you are--as a rule." "Which makes it all the queerer." "I wish you'd be more explicit. To hear you take on this tone of mystery--you know how I hate mysteries--makes me conscious of a feeling which it would be mild to describe as queer. It didn't strike me that there was anything remarkable about the girl's looks, except that she looked pale and worried. You don't know what she may have had to go through lately." "No, I don't; and--I don't think I'd care to." "Adela! Now you're at it again! Will you go and put your hat on? I don't know if you're aware that the time's going; I suppose you don't want to keep that carriage waiting all day." Mrs Vernon went out of the room without another word. At the door she turned and favoured him with a look which he instinctively resented. He gave vent to his feelings as soon as she had gone. "Now what did she mean by looking at me like that? There's something about the best of women which is--trying. She's got some notion into her head about that girl; and--I wonder what it is? When I do get within reach of Strathmoira I'll speak a few plain words to him. The idea of his treating me, in my own house, as if I were a pawn--Adela's too absurd!--I should like to see him try it!" On Mr Vernon's face there was a smile which, if the Earl of Strathmoira had been there, he might have been excused if he regarded as a challenge. CHAPTER XV DOROTHY GILBERT OF NEWCASTER Mrs Vernon was standing looking out on to the lawn, pinning some flowers in her blouse. Her daughter, coming on her from behind, laid her hands upon her shoulders, and then her cheek against her mother's. The mother, continuing to arrange her flowers, suffered the soft cheek to remain against her own, for some seconds, in silence.