‘Give me time to breathe, time to think,’ she said.

’And then will you answer me plainly, truthfully, without a shadow of reserve, remembering that the fate of two lives hangs on your words.’

‘I will.’

’Let it be so, then.  I’ll go for a ramble over the hills, and return in time for afternoon tea.  I shall look for you on the tennis lawn at half-past four.’

He took her in his arms, and this time she yielded herself to him, and the beautiful head rested for a few moments upon his breast, and the soft eyes looked up at him in confiding fondness.  He bent and kissed her once only, but a kiss that meant for life and death.  In the next moment he was gone, leaving her alone among the pine trees.

CHAPTER XI.

‘IF I WERE TO DO AS ISEULT DID.’

Lady Maulevrier rarely appeared at luncheon.  She took some slight refection in her morning-room, among her books and papers, and in the society of her canine favourites, whose company suited her better at certain hours than the noisier companionship of her grandchildren.  She was a studious woman, loving the silent life of books better than the inane chatter of everyday humanity.  She was a woman who thought much and read much, and who lived more in the past than the present.  She lived also in the future, counting much upon the splendid career of her beautiful granddaughter, which should be in a manner a lengthening out, a renewal of her own life.  She looked forward to the day when Lesbia should reign supreme in the great world, a famous beauty and leader of fashion, her every act and word inspired and directed by her grandmother, who would be the shadow behind the throne.  It was possible—­nay, probable—­that in those days Lady Maulevrier would herself re-appear in society, establish her salon, and draw around her closing years all that is wittiest, best, and wisest in the great world.

Her ladyship was reposing in her low reading-chair, with a volume of Tyndall on the book-stand before her, when the door was opened softly and Lesbia came gliding in, and seated herself without a word on the hassock at her grandmother’s feet.  Lady Maulevrier passed her hand caressingly over the girl’s soft brown hair, without looking up from her book.

‘You are a late visitor,’ she said; ’why did you not come to me after breakfast?’

’It was such a lovely morning, we went straight from the breakfast table to the garden; I did not think you wanted me.’

’I did not want you; but I am always glad to see my pet.  What were you doing in the garden all the morning?  I did not hear you playing tennis.’

Lady Maulevrier had already interrogated the German governess upon this very subject, but she had her own reasons for wishing to hear Lesbia’s account.

’No, it was too warm for tennis.  Fraeulein and I sat and worked, and Mr. Hammond read to us.’