It was a clear winter afternoon and the sunshine that entered a window of the big hall at Hazlehurst fell upon Millicent as she sat in one of the recesses reading a book. Blake thought she looked very beautiful. As she raised her eyes and caught sight of him she started, and, dropping the book, she rose with a tingle of heightened color, while Blake felt his heart beat fast. Thrown off her guard as she had been, he caught the gladness in her eyes before she could hide it.
“You are surprised at my turning up?” he asked, holding her hand an unnecessarily long time and smiling into her eyes.
The color was still in Millicent’s cheeks and she was conscious of an unusual shyness; but she tried to answer naturally.
“I knew that Colonel Challoner had given orders for you to be traced, if possib
