"Well, Sir Edwin, try if you can persuade her. Mrs. Grey, let me
present to you Sir Edwin Uniacke."
It was so sudden, and the compulsion of the moment so extreme, that
Christian stood calm as death--stood and bowed, and he bowed too, as
in response to an ordinary introduction to a perfect stranger. She was
quite certain afterward that she had not betrayed herself by any
emotion; that, as seemed her only course, she had risen and walked
straight to the piano, her fingers just touching Sir Edwin's offered arm;
that she had seated herself, and begun mechanically to take off her
gloves, without one single word having been exchanged between them.
The young man took his place behind her chair. She never looked
toward him--never paused to think how he had come there, or to
wonder over the easy conscience of the world, which had readmitted
him into the very society whence he had lately been ignominiously
expelled. Her sole thought was that there was a song to be sung and
she had to sing it, and go back as fast as she could into some safe
hiding-place. Having accomplished this, she rose.
"Not yet, pray; one more song. Surely you know it--'Love in thine
eyes.'"
As the voice behind her--a voice so horribly familiar, said this,
Christian turned round.
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