‘She is young, slender, not so tall as I am, and I should say rather elegant than handsome; very pale, cold in her demeanour; she has a small mouth and chin, and a long fair neck.’ ‘Humph! A trifle like Lady Stuartville,’ replied His Majesty. ‘I should not wonder if it is the countess; but I’ll know. Perhaps you did not say to whom the house belonged, Mina?’ ‘I said,’ replied Mina, smiling, ‘that the owner of the house was a great Angrian proprietor, a lineal descendant of the Western Pakenhams, and that I was his housekeeper.’ ‘She would not believe you! Give me your hand, Mina. You are not so old as I am.’ ‘Yes, my lord; I was born on the same day, an hour after Your Grace.’ ‘So I have heard, but it must be a mistake; you don’t look twenty, and I am twenty-five. Look at me, Mina, straight, and don’t blush!’ Mina tried to look, but she could not do it without blushing. She coloured to the temples. ‘Pshaw!’ said His Grace, pushing: her away, ‘my acquaintance of ten years cannot meet my eye unshrinkingly! Have you lost that ring I once gave you, Mina?’ ‘Which ring, my lord? You have given me many.’ ‘That which I said had the essence of your whole heart and mind engraven in the stone as a motto.’ ‘FIDELITY?’ asked Miss Laury; and she held out her hand with a graven emerald on the forefinger. ‘Right!’ was the reply; ‘is it your motto still?’ And with one of his jealous glances, he seemed trying to read her conscience. Miss Laury at once saw that late transactions were not a secret confined between herself and Lord Hartford. She saw His Grace was unhinged and strongly inclined to be savage. She stood and watched him with a sad, fearful gaze. ‘Well,’ she said, turning away after a long pause, ‘if Your Grace is angry with me I’ve very little to care about in this world.’ The entrance of servants with the dinner prevented Zamorna’s answer. As he took his place at the head of the table, he said to the man who stood behind him: ‘Give Mr. Pakenham’s compliments to Mrs. Irving, and say that he will be happy to see her at his table if she will honour him so far as to be present there.’ The footman vanished. He returned in five minutes. ‘Mrs. Irving is too much tired to avail herself of Mr. Pakenham’s kind invitation at present, but she will be happy to join him at tea.’ ‘Very well,’ said Zamorna. Then looking round: ‘Where is Miss Laury?’ Mina was in the act of gliding from the room, but she stopped mechanically at his call. ‘Am I to dine alone?’ he asked. ‘Does Your Grace wish me to attend you?’ He answered by rising and leading her to her seat. He then resumed his own, and dinner commenced. It was not until after the cloth was withdrawn and the servants had retired that the duke, whilst he sipped his single glass of champagne, recommenced the conversation he had before unpleasantly entered upon. ‘Come here,’ he said, drawing a chair close to his side.