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The chairs were covered with a cheap red cretonne; there was an armchair or two with the high seat and long elbows, which seemed to have gone astray from a Peckham drawing-room; an ormolu clock under a glass shade ornamented the overmantel, and in the way of literature there was one book in the room Prescott's Conquest of Peru and a copy of the Times.
With a half-smile he rose, and going to the door he bade his page who was idling in the anteroom go summon the captain. Then he paced slowly back, not to the place he had lately occupied at table, but to the hearth, where he took his stand with his shoulders squared to the overmantel.
"A chair, Dom Miguel." Dom Miguel Forjas accepted the proffered chair, whilst Wellington seated himself at Sir Terence's desk. Sir Terence himself remained standing with his shoulders to the overmantel, whence he faced them both as well as Grant, who, according to his self-effacing habit, remained in the background by the window.
Leandre leapt up to answer him, white in the face, tense and quivering with excitement. "She left the theatre in the Marquis de La Tour d'Azyr's carriage immediately after the performance. We heard him offer to drive her to this inn." Andre-Louis glanced at the timepiece on the overmantel. He seemed unnaturally calm. "That would be an hour ago rather more. And she has not yet arrived?"
The overmantel which had hitherto been designed with some architectural pretension, now gave way to the larger mirrors which were introduced by the improved manufacture of plate glass: and the chimney piece became lower.
Eventually he gave her thirty shillings for the table, the overmantel, the easy chair, three other chairs and the two best pictures one a large steel engraving of 'The Good Samaritan' and the other 'Christ Blessing Little Children'.
She hummed a tune to herself, rattling a pair of castanets slightly now and then. At the mention of the archbishop she chuckled impiously and turned her head to look at Byrne, so that the red glow of the fire flashed in her black eyes and on her white teeth under the dark cowl of the enormous overmantel. And he smiled at her. He rested now in the ease of security.
The time for procrastination had passed, however, and as she opened her eyes she wound her arms about Mark's neck. "It must be nearly eight o'clock," she remarked, as she rose from her chair a few minutes later, going at once to look in the mirror which formed part of the overmantel. "Carrissima," said Mark, "I begin to suspect " "What?" she demanded. "That this must be a put-up job!"
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