There was a change in Mr. Egerton’s manner from the moment of that introduction.  He laid down Milly’s sketch without another word, and stood with his eyes fixed on Augusta Darrell’s face with a strange half-bewildered look, like a man who doubts the evidence of his own senses.  Mrs. Darrell, on the contrary, seemed, after that one look which I had seen, quite at her ease, and rattled on gaily about the delight of travelling in the Tyrol, as compared to the dulness of life at Thornleigh.

‘I hope you will enliven us a little, Mr. Egerton,’ she said.  ’It is quite an agreeable surprise to find a new neighbour.’

’I ought to be very much flattered by that remark; but I doubt my power to add to the liveliness of this part of the world.  And I do not think I shall stay much longer at Cumber.’

Milly glanced up at him with a surprised look.

‘Mrs. Collingwood told us you were quite settled at the Priory,’ she said, ’and that you intended to spend the rest of your days as a country squire.’

’I may have dreamed such a dream sometimes, Miss Darrell; but there are dreams that never fulfil themselves.’

He had recovered himself by this time, and spoke in his accustomed tone.  Mr. Darrell asked him to dinner on an early day, when I knew the Rectory people were coming to us, and the invitation was accepted.

Julian Stormont had followed Mrs. Darrell in from the terrace, and had remained in the background, a very attentive listener and observer during the conversation that followed.

‘So that is Angus Egerton,’ he said, when our visitor had left us.

’Yes, Julian.  O, by the bye, I forgot to introduce you; you came in so quietly,’ answered Mr. Darrell.

’I can’t say I particularly care about the honour of knowing that gentleman,’ said Mr. Stormont in a half-contemptuous tone.

‘Why not?’ Milly asked quickly.

‘Because I never heard any goof of him.’

‘But he has reformed, it seems,’ said Mr. Darrell, ’and is leading quite a steady life at Cumber, the Collingwoods tell me.  Augusta and I called at the Rectory this morning, and the Rector and his wife talked a good deal of him.  I was rather pleased with him, I confess, just now.’

Milly looked up at her father gratefully.  Poor child! how innocently and unconsciously she betrayed her secret! and how little she thought of the jealous eyes that were watching her!  I saw Julian Stormont’s face darken with an angry look, and I knew that he had already discovered the state of Milly’s feelings in relation to Angus Egerton.

He was still with us when Mr. Egerton came to dinner two days later.  I shall never forget that evening.  The day was oppressively warm, with that dry sultry heat of which there had been so much during the latter part of the summer; and as the afternoon advanced, the air grew still, that palpable stillness which so often comes before a thunder-storm.  Milly had been full of life and vivacity all day, flitting from room to room with a kind of joyous restlessness.  She took unusual pains with her toilette for so simple a party, and came into my room looking like Titania in her gauzy white dress, with half-blown blush-roses in her hair, and more roses in a bouquet at her waist.