Adrien Leroy smiled.
"By no means," he said. "Ah! here comes something you require, I know,"
he added, as the door opened, and Norgate entered, bearing a large silver tray.
Having set the chairs to table, and placed the wine and gla.s.ses at hand, the man announced respectfully that supper was served. His master dismissed him, guessing that the girl would be less embarra.s.sed if alone with him; and Norgate retired with a face as expressionless as if the entertaining of "street waifs"--as he mentally termed the young visitor--were of nightly occurrence.
Adrien placed a plate of cold chicken on a low table beside her.
"You are warm there," he said, as he poured her out a gla.s.s of wine.
The girl looked up into his face with a mute, questioning glance; then, taking courage from the kindly eyes, she picked up her knife and fork with long, thin, but well-shaped hands.
Leroy turned to the table, and by dint of helping himself from various dishes, under a pretence of making a hearty meal, he gave her confidence; and presently he saw that she had commenced to eat. Adrien rose from time to time, and waited on her with a delicacy and tenderness with which few of his friends would have credited him; till, with a sigh of content, she laid down the knife and fork.
"Are you better now?" he asked as he took her plate.
She looked up at him in speechless adoration, and her eyes filled with tears.
"How good you are to me," she said. "I never dreamt there could be such a beautiful place as this. Do you often bring people in out of the cold?"
His face became grave.
"No," he said evasively--"not as often as I should, I"m afraid. And now, suppose you tell me your name."
"Jessica," she replied simply.
"And have you no relatives--no friends to help you?" he continued.
She shook her head sadly.
"Only Martha and Johann," was the hopeless reply.
"You poor child! And what does friend Johann do for a living?"
Again she shook her head.
"I don"t know. He gets drunk."
"An overfilled profession that," said Leroy, with a sigh. "And now, what are we to do with you, little Jessica?"
She looked up with frightened eyes.
"Oh," she cried breathlessly, "are you going to turn me out into the cold again? Must I go? Oh, I knew it was too good to last!"
In her terror she had started up; but Leroy put her back gently into the chair.
"No, little one, we won"t turn you out to-night," he promised.
"To-morrow, we will see what can be done to make your road softer in future."
She did not understand half his words; but as with an almost womanly tenderness he placed a silken cushion beneath her head, she nestled down, smiling into his eyes with the grat.i.tude of a child that neither questions nor doubts. To her he appeared like a being from another world--a world or which she had scarcely dared to dream, and her eyes were eloquent.
Adrien Leroy stood for a little while watching her, till her gentle breathing showed him she had fallen asleep.
"A beautiful child," he said under his breath. "She will be a still more beautiful woman." He sighed. "Poor little thing! Rich and poor, young and old, how soon the world"s poison reaches us!" Then, throwing a tiger-skin over the slender body, he turned out the lights and left the room. Summoning Norgate, he gave instructions that his nocturnal visitor should not be disturbed in the morning by the housekeeper, but should be allowed to sleep on. Then he made his way to his own room, not long before the dawn broke.
He had befriended this young human thing as he would have rescued a wounded bird, and with as little thought for the consequences; yet the day was to come when he should look back on this action as one inspired, in very truth, by his guardian angel.
CHAPTER IV
The sun had risen cold and bright when Adrien Leroy awoke, and his first question was for the child, Jessica. But here a surprise awaited him, for the bird had flown. Norgate and the housekeeper had found the room tenantless. For some inexplicable reasons of her own she must have stolen noiselessly out while the other occupants of the flat were still sleeping.
Adrien made no comment, but proceeded to undergo the labours of the toilet. A cold bath is an excellent tonic; and when Leroy entered the dining-room his calm face bore no traces of his comparatively sleepless night. He sat down to breakfast, waited on by the attentive Norgate, and turned over the heap of letters which lay beside his plate. During his leisured meal he opened them. They were princ.i.p.ally invitations, though a few of them were bills--big sums, many of them, for horses, dinner-parties, supper-parties, jewellery, flowers--all the hundred-and-one trifles which were as necessary to a man in his position as light and air.
With a gesture of weariness, he pushed the pile from him, and throwing them carelessly into the drawer of a buhl cabinet, left them until such time as Jasper Vermont could attend to them.
"Where do I dine to-night?" he asked presently.
"At the Marquis of Heathcotes", sir--at eight," replied Norgate, who knew his master"s engagements better than did the young man himself.
Leroy nodded absently.
"Order the new motor for four o"clock. I want to see how it goes."
"Yes, sir." The confidential servant coughed and looked slightly embarra.s.sed. "I may mention, sir, that Perrier has sent in his account for the costumes made for the Fancy Dress Carnival at Prince"s."
"Refer him to Mr. Vermont," was the calm reply. "I have sir, several times, but he wants to see you personally. It"s a matter of discount----"
"Send him to Mr. Vermont. I know nothing of his bill or his discount.
Surely you know that, Norgate," Leroy interrupted impatiently.
The discreet Norgate retreated silently; and ten minutes later Leroy started for his morning canter in the Row. Here, meeting and chatting with his numerous friends, the morning pa.s.sed quickly enough; and when Leroy returned to his chambers again, Norgate was putting the finishing touches to the table already set for lunch.
"Covers for four?" said his master, as he entered the room. "Who is coming?"
"Mr. Shelton, Lord Standon, and Mr. Paxhorn, sir."
"Ah, yes, to be sure," replied the host, who had completely forgotten the invitation. "I thought it was for to-morrow."
The loud hoot of a motor outside told him that his visitors were arriving; and in another moment the door was flung open, and Mortimer Shelton, followed by Lord Standon, entered the room.
"Well, Leroy, old man," exclaimed the former cheerily, as they shook hands, "you look as fresh as if you had awoke with the dawn!"
"Nothing new in that," said Lord Standon, laughing. "Nothing upsets Leroy."
"Except a bad dinner," murmured Algernon Paxhorn, the fourth member of the party, who had just entered the room. He was the latest literary lion, and a fast friend--in more senses than one--of Adrien and the members of his set.