ecoration, but
on the head was a red fez, which gave prominence to the white,
broad forehead, with the dark hair waving away behind the ears. Lord
Windlehurst held his eye-glass to his eye in interested scrutiny. "H'm,"
he said, with lips pursed out, "a most notable figure, a most remarkable
face! My dear, there's a fortune in that face. It's a national asset."

He saw the flush, the dumb amazement, the poignant look in Lady
Eglington's face, and registered it in his mind. "Poor thing," he said
to himself, "I wonder what it is all about--I wonder. I thought she had
no unregulated moments. She gave promise of better things." The Foreign
Minister was bringing his guest towards them. The new-comer did not look
at them till within a few steps of where they stood. Then his eyes met
those of Lady Eglington. For an instant his steps were arrested. A swift
light came into his face, softening its quiet austerity and strength.

It was David.

CHAPTER XIX. SHARPER THAN A SWORD

A glance of the eye was the only sign of recognition between David and
Hylda; nothing that others saw could have suggested that they had ever
met before. Lord Windlehurst at once engaged David in conversation.

At first when Hylda had come back from Egypt, those five years ago, she
had often wondered what she would think or do if she ever were to see
this man again; whether, indeed, she could bear it. Well, the moment and
the man had come. Her eyes had gone blind for an instant; it had seemed
for one sharp, crucial moment as though she could not bear it; then the
gulf of agitation was passed, and she had herself in hand.

While her mind was engaged subconsciously with what Lord Windlehurst and
David said, comprehending it all, and, when Lord Windlehurst appealed
to her, offering by a word contribution to the 'pourparler', she was
studying David as steadily as her heated senses would permit her.

He seemed to her to have put on twenty years in the steady force of his
personality--in the composure of his bearing, in the self-reliance of
his look, though his face and form were singularly youthful. The face
was handsome and alight, the look was that of one who weighed things;
yet she was conscious of a great change. The old delicate quality of
the features was not so marked, though there was nothing material in the
look, and the head had not a sordid line, while the hand that he now
and again raised, brushing his forehead meditatively, had gained mu