I had the news yesterday for certain." "What luck!" said Boyd, his handsome eyes fixed on Lana Helmer, who shot at him a glance as daring.

And it made me uneasy to see she meant to play coquette with such a man as Boyd; and I remembered her high spirits and bright daring at the somewhat loose gatherings at Guy Park, where every evening too much wine was drunk, and Sir John and Clarissa made no secret of the flame that burned between them.
Yet, of Lana Helmer never a suspicious word had been breathed that ever I had heard--for it seemed she could dare where others dared not; say and do and be what another woman might not, as though her wit and beauty licensed what had utterly damned another.

Nor did her devotion and close companionship with Clarissa ever seem to raise a question as to her own personal behaviour.

And well I remember a gay company being at cards and wine one day in the summer house on the river hew she answered a disrespect of Sir John with a contemptuous rebuke which sent the muddy blood into his face and left him ashamed--the only time I ever saw him so.
Ensign Chambers came a-mincing up, was presented to the ladies, languidly made preparations for taking Mrs.Lansing by storm; and the first deadly grace he pictured for her was his macaroni manner of taking snuff--with which fascinating ceremony he had turned many a silly head in New York ere we marched out and the British marched in.
I talked for a while with Mrs.Bleecker of this and that, striving the while to catch Lana Helmer's eye.

For not only did her coquetry with Boyd make me uneasy, knowing them both as I did, but on my own account I desired to speak to her in private when opportunity afforded.