Part 76 (2/2)

Her voice faltered on the last words; but the touch of emotion was lost in a sudden embrace from Nance.

”Oh, you darling!--you love!” she cried. ”A thousand pounds! I feel a queen!” She drew back a little, flus.h.i.+ng with excitement and pleasure; and opened the cheque almost reverently. ”And can I really, really get a thousand pounds by signing my name on the back of this? I can't believe it, you know--I simply _can't_.”

She raised her s.h.i.+ning eyes to Clodagh's.

Clodagh's face softened.

”Oh, you child!” she said--”you child! It makes me remember our weekly pennies, just to listen to you. How poor--and how very happy--we were long ago! Do you remember?”

Nance gave a little cry of recollection.

”Remember, Clo! _Could_ I forget?”

Then followed another impulsive embrace, a kiss, and a whole torrent of reminiscence. And a quarter of an hour had slipped away before the entrance of Simonetta with Clodagh's dress recalled them to the knowledge of present things.

Five minutes before the dinner hour had struck, the sisters entered the hall. At the foot of the stairs Nance was detained by George Tuffnell; while Clodagh, left alone for the moment, was at once claimed by Serracauld.

He came forward from one of the windows, moving with his usual graceful indolence, and, pausing beside her, looked intently into her face.

”You look radiant to-night,” he said.

She laughed.

”Can one ever look radiant in black?”

Serracauld's eyes pa.s.sed slowly from her face to her slim white neck.

”Yes,” he said, in his cool, deliberate voice.

She gave another laugh, slightly shorter and more conscious than the last. But before she could speak again, he moved a trifle nearer, and laid his fingers lightly on her fan.

”And how many dances am I to have?”

”I told you I must not dance--yet.”

”And I told you that I would not make you dance. How many may I have?”

He bent very close to her; then frowned a little, and drew away again, as Lady Frances Hope, followed by Mrs. Bathurst and Mansfeldt, came towards them across the hall.

”You'll give me the dances?” he asked quickly.

Clodagh glanced at the approaching party; then bent her head in a.s.sent.

”And which?”

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