She glanced up at him. His eyes were fixed on the bosom of her dress, on the spot where the white blossom had shone conspicuously, but shone no longer; and there was a wistful, yearning expression on his grave face.
She did not raise her eyes.
"I don"t know. I may be tired. Perhaps I may follow you."
He bowed, almost as he would have bowed to a stranger; then, as he was turning away, he said casually, but with a faint tremor in his voice:
"You have lost your flower!"
She raised her eyes and looked at him coldly.
"My flower? Ah, yes. My maid must have put it in insecurely."
The earl said nothing, but his grave eyes slowly left her face and wandered to Sir Archie and the flower in his b.u.t.tonhole.
"I will wait for you until twelve," he said, with cold courtesy.
Lady Wolfer rose and went toward Lady Angleford.
"I wish you"d join us, my dear," she said. "Why, the woman movement sprang from America. You ought to sympathize with us."
"Oh, but I"m English now," said Lady Angleford, "and, being a convert, I"m more English than the English. What a charming specimen of your country you have in Miss Lorton! I don"t want to rob you of her, but do you think you could spare her to come to us at Anglemere? We are going there almost directly."
Lady Wolfer replied absently:
"Yes, certainly; ask her. It will not matter to me."
"Not matter!" said Lady Angleford. "Why, I should have thought you would have suffered pangs at the mere thought of parting with her. She is an angel! Did you hear her sing just now? I don"t know much about your English larks, but I was comparing her with them----"
Lady Wolfer fanned herself vigorously.
"Ask her, by all means," she said. "Oh, yes; of course I shall miss her."
As she spoke, Sir Archie came toward her. A faint flush rose to her face. Her eyes fell upon the white flower in his b.u.t.tonhole.
"Why--how----Is that my flower?" she said, in a low voice.
"Yes," he replied. "It is yours. You dropped it, and I picked it up. Has any one a better right to it?"
She looked up at him half defiantly, half pleadingly.
"You have no right to it," she said, in a low voice, which she tried in vain to keep steady. "You--you are attracting attention----"
She glanced at the women near her, some of whom were eying the pair with sideway looks of curiosity.
"I am desperate," he said; "I can bear it no longer. I told you the other day that I had come to the end of my power of endurance. You--you are cold--and cruel. I want your decision; I must have it. I cannot bear----"
"Hush!" she said warningly, the screen in her hand shaking. "I will speak to you later--after--after some of them have gone. No; not to-night. Do not remain here any longer."
"As you please," he said, with a sullen resentment; and he crossed the room to Nell, and began to talk to her. As a rule, he talked very little; but the wine had loosened his tongue, and he launched out into a cynical and amusing diatribe against society and all its follies.
Nell listened with surprise at first; then she began to feel amused, and laughed.
He drew a chair near her and bent toward her, lowering his voice and speaking in an impressive tone quite unusual with him. To the casual observer it might well have seemed that they were carrying on a desperate flirtation; but every now and then he paused absently, and presently he rose almost abruptly and went into an anteroom.
An antique table with writing materials stood in a recess. He wrote something rapidly on a half sheet of note paper, and placing it inside a book, laid the volume on the pedestal of a Sevres vase standing near the table.
When he left Nell, Lady Wolfer crossed over to her.
"Sir Archie has been amusing you, dear?" she said, casually enough; but the smile which accompanied the remark did not harmonize with the unsmiling and anxious eyes.
"Oh, yes," said Nell, laughing. "He has been talking the most utter nonsense."
"He--he is very strange to-night," said Lady Wolfer, biting her lip softly. Not to innocent Nell could she even hint that Sir Archie had taken more wine than was good for him. "He has been talking utter nonsense to me. Did you notice the flower in his coat?"
"No," said Nell, with some surprise. "Why?"
Lady Wolfer laughed unnaturally.
"Nothing. Yes! Nell, I want you to get that flower from him. It--is a bet."
"I--get it from him?" said Nell, opening her gray eyes.
Lady Wolfer flushed for a moment.
"It is only a piece of folly," she said. "But--but I want you to get it.
Ask him for it--he cannot refuse. Oh, I can"t explain! I will, perhaps; but get it!"
She moved away as Sir Archie reappeared in the doorway. He came straight up to Nell.
"I think I"ll be off," he said. "Some of the others have gone already."
He went toward Lady Wolfer as if to say "Good night," but, with the skill which every woman can display on occasion, Lady Wolfer turned from him as if she did not see him, and joined in the conversation which was being carried on by the d.u.c.h.ess and Lady Angleford.
"I"ve come to say good night, Lady Wolfer," he said.
She met his gaze for a moment.
"Good night," she said, in the conventional tone. He bowed over her hand, looked at her with an intense and questioning gaze for an instant, then left her and came back to Nell.
"Oh, I"ve forgotten!" he exclaimed, half turning as if to rejoin the group he had left; then he hesitated, and added: "Will you be so kind as to give Lady Wolfer a message for me?"
"Yes, certainly," said Nell, rather absently; for she was wondering how she could ask for the flower, on which her eyes were unconsciously fixed.
"Thanks! You are always so kind. Will you tell her, please, that the book she wants is on the Sevres pedestal, just behind the vase. She will want it to-night."
Nell nodded.
"I won"t forget," she said. "Are you going to take that poor flower into the cold, Sir Archie?"