No, certainly the child was not there now. As I crossed the large
drawing-room I began to think there was no one there. The pale yellow
silk curtains that screened the arch by which one entered the inner room
were drawn close. Just outside them I paused for a second; I had almost
turned back; then I heard a low laugh and there was the pleasant tinkle
of teacups.
I raised the curtain to pass through, and found beyond it a French
screen. I was about to pass around it into the room when I glanced up at
the wall, on which hung an old-fashioned convex mirror. It reflected the
room and its occupants with a minute delicacy. Her Ladyship, more like a
Dresden-china figure than ever in a teagown of flowered silk, lolled in
a low chair. She was holding a teacup in her pretty beringed hands. In
the mirror her colour seemed more than usually high. She was very gay,
animated and smiling.
There was a man with her. His back was to the mirror and at first I did
not notice him. He was sitting on a tabouret, which must have been an
uncomfortable seat for one of his height and length of limb. He had an
air of sitting at Lady Ardaragh's feet.
I had an idea that my presence would be an intrusion, even before the
man in the mirror turned his head and I recognized him.
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