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"Do you mean to turn my head?" he asked her, with a humorous smile. "It would be easier," she answered, "than to touch your heart." Then Lucille looked across at them and Mr. Sabin suddenly remembered that Reginald Brott knew them both only as strangers. "Muriel," she said, "you are behaving disgracefully." "I am doing my best," Lady Carey answered, "to keep you in countenance."
You won't lose your friends. There was a sudden loud tapping at the door. Brott dropped her wrist and turned round with an exclamation of anger. To Lucille it was a Heaven-sent interposition. The Prince entered, pale, and with signs of hurry and disorder about his usually immaculate person. "You are both here," he exclaimed. "Good! Lucille, I must speak with you urgently in five minutes.
She has let me understand that they are a bar between us. And it is a horrible confession, Grahame, but I believe that I was wavering. This invitation from Letheringham seemed such a wonderful opportunity for compromise." "This must never go out of the room," Grahame said hoarsely. "It would ruin your popularity. They would never trust you again." "I shall tell no one else," Brott said.
From the first you seemed to be the man who might have brought it about. We listened to you, we watched your career, and we began to have hopes. Mr. Brott, the bodies and souls of millions of your fellow-creatures were in the hollow of your hand. It was you who might have set them free. It was you who might have made this the greatest, the freest, the happiest country in the world.
"Brott!" he repeated. "He is Home Secretary, I believe." "What do you know about him?" "Nothing," Mr. Sabin answered. "My niece, the Countess of Camperdown, asks me to meet him to-day at luncheon. Explain yourself, my young friend. There is a fresh glass by your side." Felix poured himself out a glass and drank it off. But he remained silent. "Well?" Felix picked up his gloves and stick.
"I make it a rule to believe nothing that I see, and never to trust my ears." She stamped her foot lightly upon the floor. "How impossible you are," she exclaimed. "I can tell you by what train Lucille and Reginald Brott will leave London to-night. I can tell you why Lucille is bound to go." "Now," Mr. Sabin said, "you are beginning to get interesting."
"Have you seen anything of her?" she asked. He shook his head gloomily. "No! It is too late for her to come now, isn't it?" "Take me somewhere where we can talk," she said abruptly. "One of those seats in the recess will do." He obeyed her, and they found a retired corner. Lady Carey wasted no time in fencing. "I am Lucille's greatest friend, Mr. Brott, and her confidante," she said. He nodded.
I, however, unfortunately forgot this during the course of our conversation." "Yes, I remember. You told me where she was staying. But the Countess and I are old acquaintances. I feel sure that she did not object to your having given me her address. I could not possibly leave London without calling upon her." Mr. Brott moved in his chair uneasily.
The Duchess looked at her with a meaning smile. "How should I know? She left when we did." "Alone?" "Yes. It was all understood, wasn't it?" Lady Carey laughed unpleasantly. "She has fooled us," she said. "Brott is here alone. Knows nothing of her." The Duchess was puzzled. "Well, I know nothing more than you do," she answered. "Are you sure the man is telling the truth?" "Of course.
It was a long time ago, but the horror of it is still a live thing." "Yet it was the natural outcome," Mr. Brott said, "of the things which went before. Such hideous misgovernment as generations of your countrymen had suffered was logically bound to bring its own reprisal." "There is truth in what you say," Mr. Sabin admitted. He did not want to talk about the French Revolution.
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