a show of turning away from
her, of studiously neglecting her presence.

But Westray felt that the fact was there.

There is some subtle effluence of love which hovers about one who
entertains a strong affection for another. Looks may be carefully
guarded, speech may be framed to mislead, yet that pervading ambient of
affection is strong to betray where perception is sharpened by jealousy.

Now and then the architect would persuade himself that he was mistaken;
he would reproach himself with his own suspicious disposition, with his
own lack of generosity. But then some little episode would occur, some
wholly undemonstrable trifle, which swept his cooler judgment to the
winds, and gave him a quite incommensurate heartburn. He would recall,
for instance, the fact that for their interviews Lord Blandamer had
commonly selected a Saturday afternoon. Lord Blandamer had explained
this by saying that he was busy through the week; but then a lord was
not like a schoolboy with a Saturday half-holiday. What business could
he have to occupy him all the week, and leave him free on Saturdays? It
was strange enough, and stranger from the fact that Miss Euphemia
Joliffe was invariably occupied on that particular afternoon at the
Dorcas meeting; stranger from the fact that there had been some
unaccountable misunderstandings between Lord Blandamer and Westray as to
the exact hour fixed for their interviews, and that more than once when
the architect had returned at five, he had found that Lord Blandamer had
taken four as the time of their meeting, and had been already waiting an
hour at Bellevue Lodge.

Poor Mr Sharnall also must have noticed that something was going on,
for he had hinted as much to Westray a fortnight or so before he died.
Westray was uncertain as to Lord Blandamer's feelings; he gave the
architect the idea of a man who had some definite object to pursue in
making himself interesting to Anastasia, while his own affections were
not compromised. That object could certainly not be marriage, and if it
was not marriage, what was it? In ordinary cases an answer might have
been easy, yet Westray hesitated to give it. It was hard to think that
this grave man, of great wealth and great position, who had roamed the
world, and known men and manners, should stoop to common lures. Yet
Westray came to think it, and his own feelings towards Anastasia were
elevated by the resolve to be her knightly champion against all bas