"Did you ever see anything so young as they both are?" she murmured sweetly to Lady Isabel, audibly enough for Alex to guess at the words, if she did not actually hear them.
She was thankful that they should no longer be watching her, and turned with something like relief to Noel's gratified, uncritical looks.
It became suddenly much easier to speak unconstrainedly.
Perhaps she was subconsciously aware that of all of them, it was Noel himself who would expect the least of her, because his demands upon her were so infinitesimal.
"It's a beautiful ring; thank you very, very much. I--" She stopped and gulped, then said bravely, "I _love_ it."
She emphasized the word almost without knowing it, as though to force from him some response.
Although she had never actually realized it, it was a word which, in point of fact, had never yet passed between them. Noel's fair face coloured at last, as his light eyes met her unconsciously tragical gaze.
With horrid inappropriateness, the hated gibe of her schooldays flashed into Alex' thoughts, stiffening her face into the old lines of morbid, self-conscious misery.
Part of her mind, in unwilling detachment, contemplated ruefully the oddly inadequate spectacle which they must present, staring shamefacedly at one another across the glittering token of their troth.
Frenziedly desirous of breaking the silence, heavy with awkwardness, that hung between them, she began to speak hastily and almost at random.
"Thank you so very much--I've never had such a lovely present--it's lovely; thank you so much."
"I thought you'd like it," muttered Noel, more overcome with confusion, if possible, than was Alex.
"I thought you'd like something rather original, you know, not a conventional one."
"You're sure you wouldn't rather have one of the others--that emerald one that mother liked?"
"I dare say they'd let me change it, the man knows us very well."
"Well, I, I--I'm awfully glad you like it."
"Yes, I _do_ like it. I--I think it's lovely."
Alex began to feel as though she was in a nightmare, but she was mysteriously unable to put an end to their sorry dialogue.
"It's perfectly lovely, I think. I don't know how to thank you."
Noel swallowed two or three times, visibly and audibly, and then took a couple of determined steps towards her.