For a moment she thought that she must be dreaming, but there were his grey eyes holding hers captive as he had done before and she could only stare up at him, feeling as if her whole body had come alive simply because he was there when she had never thought to see him again.

“You are – here!” she exclaimed wonderingly.

“I am here!” he repeated. “I had almost given up hope of ever finding you. How could you behave in such a cruel and wicked manner? What have I ever done to deserve such punishment?”

He spoke so sternly that her hands fluttered to her breasts as if to control the violent beating of her heart.

Then, as she knew that he was waiting for an answer, she replied hesitatingly,

“I-I thought it was – best.”

“For me? You have nearly destroyed me by making me suffer in thinking I had lost you forever!”

“I did not – mean to upset you.”

“What did you expect me to feel?” he asked sharply, “when you just vanished and I was left trying to imagine what had happened.”

“I – am – sorry – terribly sorry,” Thalia whispered.

She spoke humbly, yet at the same time there was music in the air and the Earl seemed to be surrounded by an aura of light that was dazzling.

He was here! He was beside her and he appeared to mind because she had gone away.

She knew too, that while he looked amazingly handsome, he seemed thinner and his face was more sharply drawn.

“You might at least,” the Earl was saying, “have told me your real name.”

“I did not – wish you to – know it.”

“Why not?”

She could not tell him the real reason and, as Thalia was silent, he commented,

“I think you must be the only woman who would not have been curious to know what my plans for you were, the plans I told you we would talk about at dinner that night.”

Thalia looked away from him as the colour rose in her cheeks.

The Earl’s eyes were watching her and he thought that her little straight nose and the curve of her lips silhouetted against the roses was the loveliest sight that he had ever seen in his whole life.

“Have you thought about me at all?” he asked unexpectedly.

“O-of course I – have!”

“And have you wondered what I was going to suggest to you when we dined together?”

It was impossible to answer and after a moment he added,

“I had a present for you.”

“You – know I would not have accepted a – present after what you had – given me already.”

“I told you that the one thousand pounds, which I know now was for your father, did not concern us. The present I was going to give you was something very different.”

“I am – sorry I had to miss – receiving it.”

“I will give it to you now.”