"I have fallen head over heels in love with the young lady," he confessed. "Don"t think I am a confounded jacka.s.s. I am not in the habit of doing such things. I"m twenty-seven and I have never gone out of my way to meet a girl yet. This is something--different. I want to find out about them and get an introduction."
Hunterleys shook his head regretfully.
"I am afraid," he said, "that I can be of no use to you--no practical use, that is. I can only give you one little piece of advice."
"Well, what is it?" Richard asked eagerly.
"If you are in earnest," Hunterleys continued, "and I will do you the credit to believe that you are, you had better pack up your things, return to your yacht and take a cruise somewhere."
"Take a cruise somewhere!"
Hunterleys nodded.
"Get out of Monte Carlo as quickly as you can, and, above all, don"t think anything more of that young lady. Get the idea out of your head as quickly as you can."
The young man was sitting upright in his chair. His manner was half minatory.
"Say, what do you mean by this?" he demanded.
"Exactly what I said just now," Hunterleys rejoined. "If you are in earnest, and I have no doubt that you are, I should clear out."
"What is it you are trying to make me understand?" Richard asked bluntly.
"That you have about as much chance with that young lady," Hunterleys a.s.sured him, "as with that very graceful statue in the square yonder."
Richard sat for a moment with knitted brows.
"Then you know who she is, any way?"
"Whether I do or whether I do not," the older man said gravely, "so far as I am concerned, the subject is exhausted. I have given you the best advice you ever had in your life. It"s up to you to follow it."
Richard looked at him blankly.
"Well, you"ve got me puzzled," he confessed.
Hunterleys rose to his feet, and, summoning a waiter, paid his bill.
"You"ll excuse me, won"t you?" he begged. "I have an appointment in a few minutes. If you are wise, young man," he added, patting him on the shoulder as he turned to go, "you will take my advice."
Left to himself, Richard Lane strolled around the place towards the Terrace. He had no fancy for the Rooms and he found a seat as far removed as possible from the Tir du Pigeons. He sat there with folded arms, looking out across the sun-dappled sea. His matter-of-fact brain offered him but one explanation as to the meaning of Hunterleys" words, and against that explanation his whole being was in pa.s.sionate revolt.
He represented a type of young man who possesses morals by reason of a certain unsuspected idealism, mingled with perfect physical sanity. It seemed to him, as he sat there, that he had been waiting for this day for years. The old nights in New York and Paris and London floated before his memory. He pushed them on one side with a shiver, and yet with a curious feeling of exultation. He recalled a certain sensation which had been drawn through his life like a thin golden thread, a sensation which had a habit of especially a.s.serting itself in the midst of these youthful orgies, a curious sense of waiting for something to happen, a sensation which had been responsible very often for what his friends had looked upon as eccentricity. He knew now that this thing had arrived, and everything else in life seemed to pale by the side of it.
Hunterleys" words had thrown him temporarily into a strange turmoil.
Solitude for a few moments he had felt to be entirely necessary. Yet directly he was alone, directly he was free to listen to his convictions, he could have laughed at that first mad surging of his blood, the fierce, instinctive rebellion against the conclusion to which Hunterleys" words seemed to point. Now that he was alone, he was not even angry. No one else could possibly understand!
Before long he was once more upon his feet, starting out upon his quest with renewed energy. He had scarcely taken a dozen steps, however, when he came face to face with Lady Hunterleys and Mr. Draconmeyer. Quite oblivious of the fact that they seemed inclined to avoid him, he greeted them both with unusual warmth.
"Saw your husband just now, Lady Hunterleys," he remarked, a little puzzled. "I fancied he said he was alone here."
She smiled.
"We did not come together," she explained; "in fact, our meeting was almost accidental. Henry had been at Bordighera and San Remo and I came out with Mr. and Mrs. Draconmeyer."
The young man nodded and turned towards Draconmeyer, who was standing a little on one side as though anxious to proceed.
"Mr. Draconmeyer doesn"t remember me, perhaps. I met him at my sister"s, Lady Weybourne"s, just before Christmas."
"I remember you perfectly," Mr. Draconmeyer a.s.sured him courteously. "We have all been admiring your beautiful yacht in the harbour there."
"I was thinking of getting up a little cruise before long," Richard continued. "If so, I hope you"ll all join us. Flossie is going to be hostess, and the Montressors are pa.s.sengers already."
They murmured something non-committal. Lady Hunterleys seemed as though about to pa.s.s on but Lane blocked the way.
"I only arrived the other day from Algiers," he went on, making frantic efforts to continue the conversation. "I brought Freddy Montressor and his sister, and Fothergill."
"Mr. Montressor has come to the Hotel de Paris," Lady Hunterleys remarked. "What sort of weather did you have in Algiers?"
"Ripping!" the young man replied absently, entirely oblivious of the fact that they had been driven away by incessant rain. "This place is much more fun, though," he added, with sudden inspiration. "Crowds of interesting people. I suppose you know every one?"
Lady Hunterleys shook her head.
"Indeed I do not. Mr. Draconmeyer here is my guide. He is as good as a walking directory."
"I wonder if either of you know some people named Grex?" Richard asked, with studious indifference.
Mr. Draconmeyer for the first time showed some signs of interest. He looked at their questioner steadfastly.
"Grex," he repeated. "A very uncommon name."
"Very uncommon-looking people," Richard declared. "The man is elderly, and looks as though he took great care of himself--awfully well turned out and all that. The daughter is--good-looking."
Mr. Draconmeyer took off his gold-rimmed spectacles and rubbed them with his handkerchief.
"Why do you ask?" he enquired. "Is this just curiosity?"
"Rather more than that," Richard said boldly. "It"s interest."
Mr. Draconmeyer readjusted his spectacles.
"Mr. Grex," he announced, "is a gentleman of great wealth and ill.u.s.trious birth, who has taken a very magnificent villa and desires for a time to lead a life of seclusion. That is as much as I or any one else knows."
"What about the young lady?" Richard persisted.
"The young lady," Mr. Draconmeyer answered, "is, as you surmised, his daughter.... Shall we finish our promenade, Lady Hunterleys?"
Richard stood grudgingly a little on one side.
"Mr. Draconmeyer," he said desperately, "do you think there"d be any chance of my getting an introduction to the young lady?"