Page:Alice Stuyvesant - The Vanity Box.djvu/40

 sure it was because she could not. She wished she were able to think of some pretext to fling the girl, some excuse to leave the room.

"Yes, I'm just back from India," she said. "But I feel the weather very oppressive. How much more, then, you must feel it, who aren't accustomed to a Turkish-bath climate. I'm sure you must be tired after your walk, at the hottest part of the day."

"I am tired." The girl snatched eagerly at the straw held out to her. "I"

"Were you in the woods?" asked Sir Ian, as if he were saying the first thing that came into his head. It was necessary to say something.

The question seemed for some reason to add to Miss Verney's embarrassment. "No—yes. I—was in the woods—for a while," she stammered.

"I didn't see you there," said Sir Ian. "Did you meet" he paused for an instant, and the girl grew red and white. "Did you meet—my wife?"

"No," she said so faintly that at last Sir Ian's eyes were opened. "You are tired!" he exclaimed. "You've walked too far. I think we had better have tea without—waiting."

Miss Verney rang the bell, which gave her a chance to turn her back to Miss Ricardo and Sir Ian for a few seconds. When the footman appeared she asked for tea, as Sir Ian evidently expected her to do, and then said she would go and take off her hat. She was