The gentleman stood at the doorway to the salon and stared intently at the shaken young woman. She, in turn, gaped back in frank astonishment at him. In the common way, Julia was to think later, it was most irregular for any female of breeding to subject a visitor to such naked, unrelenting observation. But then again, it was not at all correct for the gentleman to stand and gaze at her in such obvious, stark, unblinking appraisal either. She did not know or care to know the reason why he studied her with a growing sneer upon his lips, she only shook her head as she looked at him, wondering whether to disbelieve her eyes or her ears. For surely, one of her senses had betrayed her.The gentleman Mrs. Bryce had said was Lord Nicholas Daventry, Baron Stafford, could not be the gentleman of that name who had composed and sent all those insane letters, one of which lay crumpled and twisted in her pocket at this very moment. This gentleman looked as though he had never committed an unconsidered or rash deed in his life.
