The excess of vitality that was in her, sighing for fresh worlds to conquer, urged her to vehement and self-confident action,--action for its own sake, for the mere joy of the heat and movement that go with it.

Part of the impulse depended on the new light in which the gentleman walking about downstairs had begun to appear to her.

She had known him hitherto as "Mummy's friend," always to be counted upon when any practical difficulty arose, and ready on occasion to put in a sharp word in defence of an invalid's peace, when a girl's unruliness threatened it.

Remembering one or two such collisions, Helena felt her cheeks burn, as she hung over the hall, in the darkness.
But those had been such passing matters.

Now, as she recalled the expression of his eyes, during their clash at the dinner-table, she realized, with an excitement which was not disagreeable, that something much more prolonged and serious might lie before her.