She rose when Ronald entered the room, and her beautiful eyes were lifted calmly to his face.

Suddenly a rush of color dyed the white brow.

Valentine remembered what Lady Earle had said of her son.
She knew that both his mother and hers wished that she should be Ronald's wife.
"I beg your pardon," he said hastily, "I thought Lady Earle was here." "She is in the library," said Valentine, with a smile that dazzled him.
He bowed and withdrew.

This, then, was Valentine Charteris, the fine lady whose coming he had dreaded.

She was very beautiful--he had never seen a face like hers.
No thought of love, or of comparing this magnificent woman with simple, pretty Dora, ever entered his mind.