the sudden pallor which had fallen on the face of the girl beside
her, nor the swift gesture with which she drew the shawl over the
child's face and pressed it to her bosom, as if to hide it. She uttered
no cry, but a look of something like terror transformed her face; and,
with a quick movement, she turned and fled into the cottage. Celia
opened the garden gate and went on her way, half-suffocated by the dust
of the rapidly disappearing car.

As Celia entered the Hall, she was met by the odour of an Egyptian
cigarette. There was something unpleasantly pungent about it, and,
coming out of the fresh air, she, unconsciously, resented the too
obtrusive perfume; it recalled to her the atmosphere of a cheap Soho
restaurant, and shady foreigners with shifty glances. Such an atmosphere
was singularly inappropriate in that great hall, with its air of
refinement and dignity. She was making her way to the stairs, when the
man she had seen in the car came out of one of the rooms. The
objectionable cigarette was between his lips, his hands were thrust in
his pockets, there was a kind of swagger in his walk. He looked like a
gentleman, but one of the wrong kind, the sort of man one meets in the
lowest stratum of the Fast Set. Celia noted all this, without appearing
to look at him; it is a way women have, that swift, sideways glance
under their lashes, the glance that takes in so much while seeming quite
casual and uninterested.

Lord Heyton stared at her, curiously and boldly; her youth and her
beauty brought a smile to his face, the smile which is very near to an
insult, and he removed his cigarette and opened his lips, as if to speak
to her. But, as if unconscious of his presence, Celia went up the stairs
quickly and looking straight before her. She had seen the smile, and
knew, without looking back, that he was standing in the hall and staring
up at her.

Instinctively, she felt that Lord Heyton was a man to be avoided.

CHAPTER XV

Somehow or other, Celia was relieved that she was not asked to dine with
the family; for she had feared that she might have to do so. She had her
dinner in her own room as usual, and afterwards went into the library to
do a little work; but she had scarcely commenced when she heard a knock
at the door, and a fashionably-dressed young woman entered. As she rose,
Celia knew that it was Lord Heyton's wife, and she regarded the
beautiful face and exquisitely-clad figure with all a woman's adm