"Our meeting with Doctor Nikola yesterday on the piazza upset her for some reason or another. She said that she had dreamt of nothing else. As you know she is very highly strung, and when you think of the descriptions we have given her of him, it is scarcely to be wondered at that she should attach an exaggerated importance to our unexpected meeting with him. That is the real explanation of the mystery. One thing, however, is quite certain; in her present state of mind she must see no more of him than can be helped. It might upset her altogether.
Oh, why did he come here to spoil our holiday?"
"I cannot see that he has spoilt it, my dear," I returned, putting my arm round her waist and leading her to the window. "The girl will very soon recover from her fit of depression, and afterwards will be as merry as a marriage-bell. By the way, I don"t know why I should think of it just now, but talking of marriage-bells reminds me that Glenbarth told me last night that he thought Gertrude one of the nicest girls he had ever met."
"I am delighted to hear it," my wife answered. "And still more delighted to think that he has such good sense. Do you know, I have set my heart upon that coming to something. No! you needn"t shake your head. For very many reasons it would be a most desirable match."
"For my own part I believe it was for no other reason that you bothered me into inviting him to join our party here. You are a matchmaker. I challenge you to refute the accusation."
"I shall not attempt to do so," she retorted with considerable hauteur.
"It is always a waste of time to argue with you. At any rate you must agree with me that Gertrude would make an ideal d.u.c.h.ess."
"So you have travelled as far as that, have you?" I inquired. "I must say that you jump to conclusions very quickly. Because Glenbarth happens to have said in confidence to me (a confidence I am willing to admit I have shamefully abused) that he considers Gertrude Trevor a very charming girl, it does not follow that he has the very slightest intention of asking her to be his wife. Why should he?"
"If he doesn"t he is not fit to sit in the House of Lords," she answered, as if that ought to clinch the argument. "Fancy a man posing as one of our hereditary legislators who doesn"t know how to seize such a golden opportunity. As a good churchwoman I pray for the n.o.bility every Sunday morning; and if not knowing where to look for the best wife in the world may be taken as a weakness, and it undoubtedly is, then all I can say is, that they require all the praying for they can get!"
"But I should like to know, how is he going to marry the best wife in the world?" I asked.
"By asking her," she retorted. "He doesn"t surely suppose she is going to ask him?"
"If he values his life he"d better not do that!" I said savagely. "He will have to answer for it to me if he does!"
"Ah," she answered, her lips curling, "I thought as much. You are jealous of him. You don"t want him to ask her because you fancy that if he does your reign will be over. A nice admission for a married man, I must say!"
"I presume you mean because I refuse to allow him to flirt with my wife?"
"I mean nothing of the kind, and you know it. How dare you say, d.i.c.k, that I flirt with the Duke?"
"Because you have confessed it," I answered with a grin of triumph, for I had got her cornered at last. "Did you not say, only a moment ago, that if he did not know where to find the best wife in the world he was unfit to sit in the House of Lords? Did you not say that he ought to be ashamed of himself if he did not ask her to be his wife? Answer that, my lady."
"I admit that I did say it; but you know very well that I referred to Gertrude Trevor!"
"Gertrude Trevor is not yet a wife. The best wife in the world is beside me now; and since you are already proved to be in the wrong you must perforce pay the penalty."
She was in the act of doing so when Gertrude entered the room.
"Oh, dear," she began, hesitating in pretended consternation, "is there never to be an end of it?"
"An end of what?" demanded my wife with some little asperity, for she does not like her little endearments to be witnessed by other people.
"Of this billing and cooing," the other replied. "You two insane creatures have been married more than four years, and yet a third person can never enter the room without finding you love-making. I declare it upsets all one"s theories of marriage. One of my most cherished ideas was that this sort of thing ceased with the honeymoon, and that the couple invariably lead a cat-and-dog life for the remainder of their existence."
"So they do," my wife answered unblushingly. "And what can you expect when one is a great silly creature who will not learn to jump away and be looking innocently out of the window when he hears the handle turned?
Never marry, Gertrude. Mark my words: you will repent it if you do!"
"Well, for ingrat.i.tude and cool impudence, that surpa.s.ses everything!" I said in astonishment. "Why, you audacious creature, not more than five minutes ago you were inviting me to co-operate in the n.o.ble task of finding a husband for Miss Trevor!"
"Richard, how can you stand there and say such things?" she e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed.
"Gertrude, my dear, I insist that you come away at once. I don"t know what he will say next."
Miss Trevor laughed.
"I like to hear you two squabbling," she said. "Please go on, it amuses me!"
"Yes, I will certainly go on," I returned. "Perhaps you heard her declare that she fears what I may say next. Of course she does. Allow me to tell you, Lady Hatteras, that you are a coward. If the truth were known, it would be found that you are trembling in your shoes at this moment. For two centimes, paid down, I would turn Queen"s evidence, and reveal the whole plot."
"You had better not, sir," she replied, shaking a warning finger at me.
"In that case the letters from home shall be withheld from you, and you will not know how your son and heir is progressing."
"I capitulate," I answered. "Threatened by such awful punishment I dare say no more. Miss Gertrude, will you not intercede for me?"
"I think that you scarcely deserve it," she retorted. "Even now you are keeping something back from me."
"Never mind, my dear, we"ll let him off this time with a caution," said my wife, "provided he promises not to offend again. And now let us settle what we are going to do to-day."
When this important matter had been arranged, it was reported to us that the ladies were to spend the morning shopping, leaving the Duke and myself free to follow our own inclinations. Accordingly, when we had seen them safely on their way to the Merceria, we held a smoking council to arrange how we should pa.s.s the hours until lunch-time. As we discovered afterwards, we both had a certain thought in our minds, which for some reason we scarcely liked to broach to each other. It was settled, however, just as we desired, but in a fashion we least expected.
We were seated in the balcony outside our room, watching the animated traffic on the Grand Ca.n.a.l below, when a servant came in search of us and handed me a note. One glance at the characteristic writing was sufficient to show me that it was from Doctor Nikola. I opened it with an eagerness that I did not attempt to conceal, and read as follows--
"DEAR HATTERAS,
"If you have nothing more important on hand this morning, can you spare the time to come and see me? As I understand the Duke of Glenbarth is with you, will you not bring him also? It will be very pleasant to have a chat upon by-gone days, and, what is more, I fancy this old house will interest you.
"Yours very truly,
"NIKOLA."
"What do you say?" I inquired, when I had finished reading, "shall we go?"
"Let us do so by all means," the Duke replied. "It will be very interesting to meet Nikola once more. There is one thing, however, that puzzles me; how did he become aware of my arrival in Venice? You say he was with you on the piazza last night, so that he could not have been at the railway station, and as I haven"t been outside since I came, except for the row after dinner, I confess it puzzles me."
"You should know by this time that it is useless to wonder how Nikola acquires his knowledge," I replied. "For my own part I should like to discover _his_ reason for being in Venice. I am very curious on that point."
Glenbarth shook his head solemnly.
"If Nikola does not want us to know," he argued, "we shall leave his house as wise as we entered it. If he _does_ let us know, I shall begin to grow suspicious, for in that case it is a thousand pounds to this half-smoked cigar that we shall be called upon to render him a.s.sistance.
However, if you are prepared to run the risk I will do so also."
"In that case," I said, rising from my chair and tossing what remained of my cigar into the water below, "let us get ready and be off. We may change our minds."
Ten minutes later we had chartered a gondola and were on our way to the Palace Revecce.
As a general rule when one sets out to pay a morning call one is not the victim of any particular nervousness; on this occasion however both Glenbarth and I, as we confessed to each other afterwards, were distinctly conscious of being in a condition which would be described by persons of mature years as an unpleasant state of expectancy, but which by school-boys is denominated "funk." The Duke, I noticed, fidgeted with his cigar, allowed it to go out, and then sat with it in his mouth unlighted. There was a far-away look on his handsome face that told me that he was recalling some of the events connected with the time when he had been in Nikola"s company. This proved to be the case, for as we turned from the Grand Ca.n.a.l into the street in which the palace is situated, he said--
"By the way, Hatteras, I wonder what became of Baxter, Prendergrast, and those other fellows?"
"Nikola may be able to tell us," I answered. Then I added after a short pause, "By Jove, what strange times those were."
"Not half so strange to my thinking as our finding Nikola in Venice,"