Lady Loring observed him attentively.
"Perhaps you underrate your influence, Stella ?" she suggested.
Stella remained impenetrable to persuasion.

"I have only been introduced to Mr.Romayne half an hour since," she said.

"I am not vain enough to suppose that I can produce a favorable impression on any one in so short a time." She had expressed, in other words, Romayne's own idea of himself, in speaking of her to Lord Loring.

He was struck by the coincidence.
"Perhaps we have begun, Miss Eyrecourt, by misinterpreting one another," he said.

"We may arrive at a better understanding when I have the honor of meeting you again." He hesitated and looked at Lady Loring.