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What happened after that remained always a confused blur in Magda's memory a series of pictures standing out against a dark background of haste and confusion, and whispered fears. Suddenly her mother gave a sharp little cry and her hands went up to her breast, while for a moment her eyes, dilated and frightened-looking, stared agonisingly ahead.
She had already confided the fact of her former meeting with him in the tea-shop. Magda's eyes widened a little. "No," she said quietly. "I think I'm glad I didn't know." She was very silent throughout the remainder of the drive home and Gillian made no effort to distract her. She herself felt disinclined to talk.
But she was gradually becoming apprehensive that disturbing consequences might accrue from Magda's stay at Stockleigh Farm. A woman of her elusive charm, equipped with all the subtle lore that her environment had taught her, must almost inevitably hold for a man of Storran's primitive way of life the fascination of something new and rather wonderful.
And now Magda's paying. . . . Well, that seems to square things somehow." "Oh, you are brutal!" broke out Gillian. His eyes, hard as steel and as unyielding, met hers. "Am I?" indifferently. "Perhaps I am." This was a very different Dan from the impetuous, hot-headed Dan of former times.
But she was femininely aware that inasmuch as Magda's affairs were disturbing her peace of mind, he would listen to them with sympathetic attention and probably, out of the depths of his man's consciousness, produce some quite sound and serviceable advice.
As they entered, Antoine Davilof broke away from a little group of men with whom he had been conversing and came to Magda's side. "The next dance is just beginning," he said. "Are you engaged? Or may I have it?" "No, I'm not engaged," she answered. She spoke flurriedly. She was dreading this dance with Antoine.
Magda is indignant, but gradually his persistence brings to light the tragedy of her life. He learns that the respected Councillor Von Keller had in his student days been Magda's lover, while she was battling for her economic and social independence. The consequence of the fleeting romance was a child, deserted by the man even before birth.
But it was precisely at this particular juncture that it pleased Fate to give a fresh twist to her swiftly turning wheel. Storran did not come in until dinner was half over, and when finally he appeared he was somewhat taciturn and avoided meeting Magda's eyes.
'I wanted a taking picture, she informed me indignantly, 'not the bones of my personality laid bare for public inspection." They were outside Magda's dressing-room by this time, and Virginie, who had flown to her nurseling the moment the dance was at an end, opened the door in response to Lady Arabella's preemptory knock. Gillian paused a moment before entering the room.
"We men will never understand women," he said. "There's an angel hidden away somewhere in every one of you." His mouth curved into a smile, half-sad, half-whimsical. "I've just found Magda's." Lady Arabella and Gillian, both feeling rather like conspirators, waited anxiously for a reply to the former's letter to Quarrington. But none came.
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