"With reluctance I abstained."
"But I don't intend that you shall. I have something to say to you."
He met her glance, and found it oddly serious - most oddly serious
for her. Responding to its entreaty, he murmured a promise in
courteous terms of delight at so much honour.
But either he forgot the promise or did not conceive its redemption
to be an urgent matter, for the quadrille being done he sauntered
through one of the crowded ante-rooms with Miss Armytage and brought
her to the cool of a deserted balcony above the garden. Beyond this
was the river, agleam with the lights of the British fleet that rode
at anchor on its placid bosom.
"Una will be waiting for you," Miss Armytage reminded him. She was
leaning on the sill of the balcony. Standing erect beside her, he
considered the graceful profile sharply outlined against a background
of gloom by the light from the windows behind them. A heavy curl of
her dark hair lay upon a neck as flawlessly white as the rope of
pearls that swung from it, with which her fingers were now idly
toying. It were difficult to say which most engaged his thoughts:
the profile; the lovely line of neck; or the rope of pearls. These
latter were of price, such things as it might seldom - and then only
by sacrifice - lie within the means of Captain Tremayne to offer to
the woman whom he took to wife.
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