"I shall be delighted," she declared. "I have seen you here once or twice before, haven"t I, Miss Grex, and some one told me that you were Russian. I suppose you are not in the least used to the free and easy ways of us Westerners, but you"ll come and have some tea with us, won"t you?"
The girl hesitated. Fate was too strong for her.
"I shall be very pleased," she agreed.
They found a window table and Lane ordered tea. Fedora was inclined to be silent at first, but Lady Weybourne was quite content to chatter. By degrees Fedora, too, came back to earth and they had a very gay little tea-party. At the end of it they all strolled back into the rooms together. Fedora glanced at the watch upon her wrist and held out her hand to Lady Weybourne.
"I am sorry," she said, "but I must hurry away now. It is very kind of you to ask me to come and see you, Lady Weybourne. I shall be charmed."
Richard ignored her fingers.
"I am going to see you down to your car, if I may," he begged.
They left the room together. She looked at him as they descended the stairs, almost tremulously.
"This doesn"t mean, you know," she said, "that I--that I agree to all you have been saying."
"It needn"t mean anything at all, dear," he replied. "This is only the beginning. I don"t expect you to realise all that I have realised quite so quickly, but I do want you to keep it in your mind that this thing has come and that it can"t be got rid of. I won"t do anything foolish.
If it is necessary I will wait, but I am your lover now, as I always must be."
He handed her into the car, the footman, in his long white livery, standing somberly on one side. As they drove off she gave him her fingers, and he walked back up the steps with the smile upon his lips that comes to a man only once or twice in his lifetime.
CHAPTER XXVII
PLAYING FOR HIGH STAKES
Violet glanced at her watch with an exclamation of dismayed annoyance.
She leaned appealingly towards the croupier.
"But one coup more, monsieur," she pleaded. "Indeed your clock is fast."
The croupier shook his head. He was a man of gallantry so far as his profession permitted, and he was a great admirer of the beautiful Englishwoman, but the rules of the Club were strict.
"Madame," he pointed out, "it is already five minutes past eight. It is absolutely prohibited that we start another coup after eight o"clock. If madame will return at ten o"clock, the good fortune will without doubt be hers."
She looked up at Draconmeyer, who was standing at her elbow.
"Did you ever know anything more hatefully provoking!" she complained.
"For two hours the luck has been dead against me. But for a few of my _carres_ turning up, I don"t know what would have happened. And now at last my numbers arrive. I win _en plein_ and with all the _carres_ and _chevaux_. This time it was twenty-seven. I win two _carres_ and I move to twenty, and he will not go on."
"It is the rule," Draconmeyer reminded her. "It is bad fortune, though.
I have been watching the run of the table. Things have been coming more your way all the time. I think that the end of your ill-luck has arrived. Tell me, are you hungry?"
"Not in the least," she answered pettishly. "I hate the very thought of dinner."
"Then why do we not go on to the Casino?" Draconmeyer suggested. "We can have a sandwich and a gla.s.s of wine there, and you can continue your vein."
She rose to her feet with alacrity. Her face was beaming.
"My friend," she exclaimed, "you are inspired! It is a brilliant idea. I know that it will bring me fortune. To the Cercle Prive, by all means. I am so glad that you are one of those men who are not dependent upon dinner. But what about Linda?"
"She is not expecting me, as it happens," Draconmeyer lied smoothly. "I told her that I might be dining at the Villa Mimosa. I have to be there later on."
Violet gathered up her money, stuffed it into her gold bag and hurried off for her cloak. She reappeared in a few moments and smiled very graciously at Draconmeyer.
"It is quite a wonderful idea of yours, this," she declared. "I am looking forward immensely to my next few coups. I feel in a winning vein. Very soon," she added, as they stepped out on to the pavement and she gathered up her skirts, "very soon I am quite sure that I shall be asking you for my cheques back again."
He laughed, as though she had been a child speaking of playthings.
"I am not sure that I shall wish you luck," he said. "I think that I like to feel that you are a little--just a very little in my debt. Do you think that I should be a severe creditor?"
Something in his voice disturbed her vaguely, but she brushed the thought away. Of course he admired her, but then every woman must have admirers. It only remained for her to be clever enough to keep him at arm"s length. She had no fear for herself.
"I haven"t thought about the matter at all," she answered carelessly, "but to me all creditors would be the same, whether they were kind or unkind. I hate the feeling of owing anything."
"It is a question," he observed, "how far one can be said to owe anything to those who are really friends. A husband, for instance. One can"t keep a ledger account with him."
"A husband is a different matter altogether," she a.s.serted coldly. "Now I wonder whether we shall find my favourite table full. Anyhow, I am going to play at the one nearest the entrance on the right-hand side.
There is a little croupier there whom I like."
They pa.s.sed up through the entrance and across the floor of the first suite of rooms to the Cercle Prive. Violet looked eagerly towards the table of which she had spoken. To her joy there was plenty of room.
"My favourite seat is empty!" she exclaimed. "I know that I am going to be lucky."
"I think that I shall play myself, for a change," Draconmeyer announced, producing a great roll of notes.
"Whenever you feel that you would like to go down and have something, don"t mind me, will you?" she begged. "You can come back and talk to me at any time. I am not in the least hungry yet."
"Very well," he agreed. "Good luck to you!" They played at opposite sides of the table. For an hour she won and he lost. Once she called him over to her side.
"I scarcely dare to tell you," she whispered, her eyes gleaming, "but I have won back the first thousand pounds. I shall give it to you to-night. Here, take it now."
He shook his head and waved it away. "I haven"t the cheques with me," he protested. "Besides, it is bad luck to part with any of your winnings while you are still playing."
He watched her for a minute or two. She still won.
"Take my advice," he said earnestly. "Play higher. You have had a most unusual run of bad luck. The tide has turned. Make the most of it. I have lost ten mille. I am going to have a try your side of the table."
He found a vacant chair a few places lower down, and commenced playing in maximums. From the moment of his arrival he began to win, and simultaneously Violet began to lose. Her good-fortune deserted her absolutely, and for the first time she showed signs of losing her self-control. She gave vent to little exclamations of disgust as stake after stake was swept away. Her eyes were much too bright, there was a spot of colour in her cheeks. She spoke angrily to a croupier who delayed handing her some change. Draconmeyer, although he knew perfectly well what was happening, never seemed to glance in her direction. He played with absolute recklessness for half-an-hour. When at last he rose from his seat and joined her, his hands were full of notes. He smiled ever so faintly as he saw the covetous gleam in her eyes.
"I"m nearly broken," she gasped. "Leave off playing, please, for a little time. You"ve changed my luck."
He obeyed, standing behind her chair. Three more coups she played and lost. Then she thrust her hand into her bag and drew it out, empty. She was suddenly pale.