"Who the deuce has Jupp picked up now?" murmured Mr. Lake, in a half-whisper. "She's an uncommon pretty girl." The lady also looked at them, letting her netting fall on her lap.
"Do you know who that young lady is?" he asked.
She disengaged the string from her foot, got up, and looked from the door. Mrs. Chester's children ran across the shrubbery with fleet feet and noisy tongues, and the sound of their voices faded away in the distance.
"It is a Miss Clapperton. Mrs. Chester introduced her to me by that name. Lydia Clapperton, I think, she called her."
Mr. Lake stared in his surprise. "_That_ Lydia Clapperton!"
"I? Oh, I am the Indian Begum; but I did not come on an elephant."
His pulses stood still for a moment. But he thought she was playing a joke upon him.
"You are not--you cannot be--Lady Ellis!"
"I am indeed. The old relict of Colonel Sir George Ellis, K.C.B."
Never in all his life had Robert Lake been so taken to, never had he felt more thoroughly confused and ashamed. The hot crimson mounted to his temples. Lady Ellis had sat down again, and was quietly going on with her work.
"I humbly beg your pardon, Lady Ellis," he said, standing before her as shamefaced as any convicted schoolboy. "I cannot expect you to accord it to me, but I most sincerely beg it."
"I think I must accord it to you," she answered, in a pretty tantalizing sort of manner. "Your offence was not against _me_, but against some fabled monster of your fancy. You shall sketch her still after dinner for private circulation."
The sound of a gong as she spoke gave notice that dinner was ready. Mr. Lake held out his hand with hesitation.
"Will you ratify your pardon, Lady Ellis? Will you promise to forget as well as forgive? I shall never forget or forgive myself."
She frankly put her hand into his as she rose. "I have forgiven; I will promise to forget. But then, you know, you must not convert me into a nightmare."
"You a nightmare!" he impulsively cried, some of his old lightness returning to him. "If you are, it will be one of a different kind: a nightmare of attraction," he gallantly added, as he offered her his arm. "What did you think of me? Did you take me for a wild animal just arrived from the savage islands?"