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"You don't like her," he remarked. "I wonder why?" Lady Blennington shook her head. "One never knows," she replied. "I admire her, if that is anything." "But you do not like her," he persisted. She shrugged her shoulders slightly. "I am afraid it is true," she agreed. "You admit that and yet you are willing to be her guest?" She smiled at him approvingly.
Arnold handed his visitor two half-crowns, which the latter put gravely into his pocket. "Come and lunch with me to-day at my rooms," he invited. "Lady Blennington and Fenella will be there. If you bring with you a sufficient appetite, you may get value for your five shillings. It is the only way you will ever get it back." "Then I must resign myself to being robbed," Arnold answered.
Chetwode I have visited in his office, and I can assure you that so far as his industry is concerned there is no manner of doubt. As for myself " Lady Blennington interrupted gayly. "Come," she said, "I believe it of these two others, if you insist, but you are not going to ask us to believe that you, the personification of idleness, are also among the toilers!"
Weatherley is a very worthy man," she said, "but it would have been better for him as well as for me if he had kept away from the Island of Sabatini. Tell me, what did Lady Blennington say about us last night?" His eyes twinkled. "She told me that Mr. Weatherley was wrecked upon the Island of Sabatini, and that your brother kept him in a dungeon till he promised to marry you." She laughed.
Arnold glanced across the room. Mr. Starling was apparently a middle-aged man clean-shaven, with pale cheeks and somewhat narrow eyes. "An American, without a doubt," Arnold remarked. "Quite right. Now the lady in the gray satin with the wonderful coiffure she has looked at you already more than once. Her name is Lady Blennington, and she is always trying to discover new young men."
One so seldom meets any one worth talking to who doesn't know everything there is that shouldn't be known about everybody. About Count Sabatini, for instance, I could tell you some most amusing things." "His castle, perhaps, is in the air?" Arnold inquired. "By no means," Lady Blennington assured him. "On the contrary, it is very much upon the rocks. Some little island near Minorca, I believe.
Once more it became entirely general, and presently the meal drew towards a pleasant termination. Fenella and Lady Blennington left together. At the moment of departure, the former turned towards Arnold. "So I cannot induce you to become my escort for to-night?" she asked. There was appeal, half humorous, half pathetic in her eyes. Arnold hesitated, but only for a moment.
Arnold looked up quickly. Fenella paused with her glass raised to her lips. "Who is the missing man?" Lady Blennington asked. "Mr. Weatherley," Sabatini replied. "We can scarcely call him that, perhaps, but he has certainly gone off on a little expedition without leaving his address." "Well, you amaze me!" Lady Blennington exclaimed. "I never thought that he was that sort of a husband."
"I want you to stay with me, if you please," she said. "I am not sure where you will play, but there is no hurry. I myself shall not sit down at present. There are others to arrive." Her brother, who had been talking languidly to Lady Blennington, came slowly up to them. "You, Andrea, will wait for the baccarat, of course?" she said. "I know that this sort of bridge does not amuse you."
"In any case, you would be forgiven," Fenella declared, "for this, as you know, is our party of reconciliation." "What, have you two been quarreling?" Lady Blennington exclaimed. "You don't deserve to have admirers, Fenella. You always treat them badly. How is it you've never been to see me, Mr. Chetwode?"
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