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The discussion of Adrienne de Gervais' merits, or demerits, threatened to develop into a violent disagreement, and Diana was struck by a certain personal acrimony that seemed to flavour Miss Lermontof's criticism of the popular actress.
They were of a curious translucent green, the more noticeable against the contrasting darkness of her hair and brows; they reminded one of the colour of Chinese jade. "I've just been to tea with Miss de Gervais," volunteered Diana, after a pause. A swift look of surprise crossed Olga Lermontof's face. "I didn't know you had met her," she said slowly. "Yes, we met at Signor Baroni's the other day.
On her part, Diana regarded Adrienne with the enthusiastic devotion which an older woman more especially if she happens to be very beautiful and occupying a somewhat unique position frequently inspires in one younger than herself, and Olga Lermontof's grave warning might just as well have been uttered to the empty air.
It had seized hold of her imagination, kept him vividly before her mind as nothing else could have done, and now Olga Lermontof's strange hints and innuendos gave a fresh fillip to her desire to know in what way Max Errington differed from his fellows. "It would be dishonourable of him to make you care," Miss Lermontof had said.
Under such conditions, when I was fifteen or sixteen, I was deeply impressed by a book that one might think was infinitely beyond the understanding of my years, Lermontof's A Hero of Our Time, in Xavier Marmier's French translation.
That which I called the daemonic I had encountered for the first time outside my own mind in Lermontof's hero. Petsjorin was compelled to act in pursuance of his natural bent, as though possessed by his own being. I felt myself in a similar manner possessed. I had met with the word Daimon and Daimones in Plato; Socrates urges that by daemons the Gods, or the children of the Gods, were meant.
"And that he is involved in Ruvanian politics. Something is going to happen there, in Ruvania " "Yes to that also. Something is going to happen there. The republic is down and out, and the last of the Mazaroffs is going to receive back the ducal crown." There was a tinge of mockery in Miss Lermontof's curt tones. Diana gave a cry of dismay. "Not not Max?" she stammered.
Only" cupping her chin in his hand and turning her face up to his "I notice I often have a somewhat worried-looking wife after one of Miss Lermontof's visits. I don't think she is too good a friend for you, Diana. Couldn't you get some one else to accompany you?" Diana hesitated. She would have been quite glad to dispense with Olga's services had it been possible.
On these occasions his manner had been studiously cold and indifferent, and any effort on her part towards establishing a more friendly footing had been invariably checked by some cruelly ironical remark, which had brought the blood to her cheeks and, almost, the tears to her eyes. She reflected grimly that Olga Lermontof's warning words had proved decidedly superfluous.
You're one of the few genuine warm-hearted people I've met and I don't want you to be unhappy. Good-bye," she added carelessly, "thank you for my tea." The door closed behind her, and Diana, returning to her seat by the fire, sat staring into the flames, puzzling over what she had heard. Miss Lermontof's curious warning had frightened her a little.
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