Manisty was clearly ill at ease, and seething with inward annoyance; Miss Manisty had the air of a frightened mouse; Alice Manisty talked not at all, and ate nothing except some poached eggs that she had apparently ordered for herself before dinner; and Eleanor--chattering of her afternoon in Rome--had to carry through the business as best she could, with occasional help from Lucy.
From the first it was unpleasantly evident to Manisty that his sister took notice of Miss Foster.

Almost her only words at table were addressed to the girl sitting opposite to her; and her roving eyes returned again and again to Lucy's fresh young face and quiet brow.
After dinner Manisty followed the ladies into the salon, and asked his aunt's leave to smoke his cigarette with them.
Lucy wondered what had passed between him and his sister before dinner.

He was polite to her; and yet she fancied that their relations were already strained.
Presently, as Lucy was busy with some embroidery on one of the settees against the wall of the salon, she was conscious of Alice Manisty's approach.

The new-comer sat down beside her, bent over her work, asked her a few low, deep-voiced questions.

Those strange eyes fastened upon her,--stared at her indeed.
But instantly Manisty was there, cigarette in hand, standing between them.
He distracted his sister's attention, and at the same moment Eleanor called to Lucy from the piano.
'Won't you turn over for me?
I can't play them by heart.' Lucy wondered at the scantiness of Mrs.Burgoyne's musical memory that night.