"Faded blue."
And, again from sheer force of instinct, Rachel gave a nod.
"Were you ever out there, Mrs. Steel?" inquired Langholm, carelessly. "I
never was, but the sort of thing has been done to death in books, and I
only wonder I didn't recognize it at once. Well, it was the last type
one thought to meet with in broad daylight on an English country road!"
Had Langholm realized that he had put a question which he had no
business to put? Had he convicted himself of a direct though
unpremeditated attempt to probe the mystery of his hostess's
antecedents, and were his subsequent observations designed to unsay
that question in effect? If so, there was no such delicacy in the elder
Miss Venables, who became quite animated at the sudden change in
Rachel's face, and at her own perception of the cause.
"Have you been to Australia, Mrs. Steel?" repeated Vera, looking Rachel
full in the eyes; and she added slyly, "I believe you have!"
There was a moment's pause, and then a crisp step rang upon the marble,
as Mr. Steel emerged from his study.
"Australia, my dear Miss Venables," said he, "is the one country that
neither my wife nor I have ever visited in our lives, and the last one
that either of us has the least curiosity to see.
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