“You have thought of everything,” Lord Dorrington remarked.

“I have tried to,” she answered miserably.

He did not realise that, when he had appeared, she had been suddenly overcome by her presumption in sending for him.

Last night in the darkness of the garden and in the coach, he had been an almost anonymous figure.

It had been difficult to see his face and, although she had resented his interfering in her life, she had, when she had thought about it later in the night, found it hard to remember exactly what he looked like.

Now she was awed almost into incoherence. She had not imagined that any man could be so handsome.

But Lord Dorrington’s clear-cut classical features took secondary place to the perfection of his dress.

He was wearing the tight pantaloons that had been brought into fashion by the Prince of Wales for less formal occasions.

They were very pale yellow, the colour of champagne, and his cut-away coat seemed to accentuate the slimness of his hips and at the same time the broadness of his shoulders.

His starched cravat was, although Alyna did not realise it, tied in the most complicated style of all, the Mathematical.

It made his neck seem very long and framed his chin. In the cravat he wore a small but brilliant tiepin that caught the rays of the sun.

Lord Dorrington put down his hat on the pew in front of them and then said quietly,

“Now tell me what has happened?”

For a moment Alyna did not answer.

Then she said in a very low voice,

“I want you to – release me from my – promise.”

“I expected that,” Lord Dorrington replied. “But first you must tell me what has occurred. I told you last night to speak to your mother. Did you do so?”

“There is no point in us talking about it,” Alyna answered. “You made me most reluctantly – give you a promise. Because I am foolishly honourable, I am asking you now to release me.”

“And if I refuse?” Lord Dorrington asked.

‘“You cannot do so! You have no right to hold me to anything that was extorted from me by blackmail!”

“Hard words!” Lord Dorrington remarked with a smile. “Start at the beginning, Alyna, and don’t let us waste time in arguments.”

“Mama will not be called until noon,” Alyna answered. “But I am sure your that Lordship has important engagements – and has no wish to be involved in my troubles. Therefore, my Lord, just do as I ask and then you can go away and leave me.”

“What has happened?” Lord Dorrington persisted.

She looked up into his face and saw the inflexibility of his expression and the look of determination in his eyes and made a little gesture of hopelessness.

“Very well,” she said, “but if you become bored you have brought it on yourself.”

“I am prepared to accept the possibility,” Lord Dorrington replied.