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Blessington made a comical grimace. "But I'm working this on commercial principles," he said. "I keep the list, names and hours complete, and Lady Astrupp gazes, in blissful ignorance as to who her victims are. The whole thing is great simple and statistical." "For goodness' sake, Bobby, shut up!" Bramfell's round eyes were twinkling with amusement. "But my system " "Systems!
That was proved to-day when he returned to tell me of the loss of this telegram. It wasn't the fear that Lady Astrupp had found it; it wasn't to save the position that I jumped at the chance of coming back; it was to feel the joy of living, the joy of seeing you if only for a day!" For one second he turned towards her, then as abruptly he turned away again.
That Chilcote should appeal to him stirred him to an uneasy feeling of pride and uncertainty. Loder saw his advantage and pressed it home. "It's come about through this crystal-gazing business. I'm afraid I didn't play my part rather made an ass of myself; I wouldn't swallow the thing, and and Lady Astrupp " He paused, measuring Blessington with a glance.
Blessington made a wry face "Something is on its way that's why I am on duty to-right. Old Bramfell and the pater are working it between them. So if Lady Bramfell or Lady Astrupp happen to drop a fan or a handkerchief this evening, I've got to be here to pick it up. See?" "As you picked up my fans and handkerchiefs last year and the year before?" Eve smiled.
"When I came into the morning-room to-day," Eve said, at last, "and saw Lillian Astrupp reading that telegram, nothing could have seemed further from me than the thought that I should follow her example.
"A fairy princess!" he had heard the red-haired man say as Lillian Astrupp came into view along the Bramfells' corridor, and the simile had seemed particularly apt. With her grace, her delicacy, her subtle attraction, she might well be the outcome of imagination. But with Eve it was different. She also was graceful and attractive but it was grace and attraction of a different order.
Then, more by intuition than actual sight, Blessington saw Eve's eyes turn from him to Loder, and with quick tact he saved the situation. "How d'you do, sir?" he responded, with a smile. "I congratulate you on looking so so uncommon well. I was just telling Mrs. Chilcote that I hold a commission for Lady Astrupp to-night. I'm a sort of scout at present reporting on the outposts."
I wasn't in the study more than a minute more than five or six minutes " His voice became confused; the strain of the connected recital was telling upon him. With nervous haste he made a rush for the end of his story. "I wasn't more than seven or eight minutes in the study; then, as I came down-stairs, Crapham met me in the hall. He told me that Lillian Astrupp had called and wished to see me.
Every detail of the scene remained the same, even to the central figure; only the eye and the hand of the artist had changed. At this point Eve broke in upon his thoughts. Her first words were curiously coincidental. "What did you think of Lillian Astrupp to-night?" she asked. "Wasn't her gown perfect?" Loder lifted his head with an almost guilty start. Then he answered straight from his thoughts.
And in a dozen sentences he sketched the story of Lillian Astrupp her past relations with himself, her present suspicions. It was not what he had meant to say; it was not what he had come to say; but it served the purpose it saved him humiliation. Chilcote listened to the last word; then, as the other finished, he dropped nervously back into his chair.
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