Guy himself never noticed
the intense emotion the introduction aroused in the distinguished
stranger. But Mrs. Clifford and Elma, each scanning him closely
with those keen grey eyes of theirs, observed at once that, unmoved
as he appeared, a thunderbolt falling at Colonel Kelmscott's feet
could not more thoroughly or completely have stunned him. For a second
or two he gazed in the young man's face uneasily, his colour came
and went, his bosom heaved in silence; then he roped his moustache
with his trembling fingers, and tried in vain to pump up some
harmless remark appropriate to the occasion. But no remark came to
him. Mrs. Clifford darted a furtive glance at Elma, and Elma darted
back a furtive glance at Mrs. Clifford. Neither said a word, and each
let her eyes drop to the ground at once as they met the other's.
But each knew in her heart that something passing strange had
astonished Colonel Kelmscott; and each knew, too, that the other
had observed it.
Mother and daughter, indeed, needed no spoken words to tell these
things plainly to one another. The deep intuition that descended
to both was enough to put them in sympathy at once without the need
of articulate language.
"Yes, Mr.
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