Lady Hilda peered around John"s room through her lorgnette, and did not hesitate to express her dissatisfaction.
"My dear man," she exclaimed, "what makes you live in a hotel? Why don"t you take rooms of your own and furnish them? Surroundings like these are destructive to one"s individuality."
"Well, you see," John explained, as he drew an easy chair up to the fire for his guest, "my stay in London is only a temporary one, and it hasn"t seemed worth while to settle anywhere."
She stretched out her graceful body in front of the fire and raised her veil. She was very smartly dressed, as usual. Her white-topped boots and white silk stockings, which she seemed to have no objection to displaying, were of the latest vogue. The chinchilla around her neck and in her little toque was most becoming. She seemed to bring with her an atmosphere indefinable, in its way, but distinctly attractive. Brisk in her speech, a little commanding in her manner, she was still essentially feminine.
John, at her direct invitation, had called upon her once or twice since their meeting at the opera, and he had found her, from the first, more attractive than any other society woman of his acquaintance. None the less, he was a little taken aback at her present visit.
"Exactly why are you here, anyhow?" she demanded. "I feel sure that Eugene told me the reason which had brought you from your wilds, but I have forgotten it."
"For one thing," John replied, "I have come because I don"t want to appear prejudiced, and the fact that I had never spent a month in London, or even a week, seemed a little narrow-minded."
"What"s the real attraction?" Lady Hilda asked. "It is a woman, isn"t it?"
"I am very fond of a woman who is in London," John admitted. "Perhaps it is true that I am here on her account."
Lady Hilda withdrew from her m.u.f.f a gold cigarette-case and a little box of matches.
"Order some mixed vermuth with lemon for me, please," she begged. "I have been shopping, and I hate tea. I don"t know why I came to see you.
I suddenly thought of it when I was in Bond Street."
"It was very kind of you," John said. "If I had known that you cared about seeing me, I would have come to you with pleasure."
"What does it matter?" she answered. "You are thinking, perhaps, that I risk my reputation in coming to a young man"s rooms? Those things do not count for me. Ever since I was a child I have done exactly as I liked, and people have shrugged their shoulders and said, "Ah, well, it is only Lady Hilda!" I have been six months away from civilization, big-game shooting, and haven"t seen a white woman. It didn"t matter, because it was I. I traveled around the world with a most delightful man who was writing a book, but it didn"t affect my reputation in the slightest. I am quite convinced that if I chose to take you off to Monte Carlo with me next week and spend a month with you there, I should get my pa.s.s to the royal enclosure at Ascot when I returned, and my invitation to the next court ball, even in this era of starch. You see, they would say, "It is only Lady Hilda!""
The waiter brought the vermuth, which his visitor sipped contentedly.
"So there is a woman, is there?" she went on, looking across the room at her companion. "Have you committed yourself already, then? Don"t you remember what I told you the first night we met after the opera--that it is well to wait?"
"Yes, I remember," John admitted.
"I meant it."
He laughed good-humoredly, yet not without some trace of self-consciousness.
"The mischief was done then," he said.
"Couldn"t it be undone?" she asked lazily. "Or are you one of those tedious people who are faithful forever? Fidelity," she continued, knocking the ash from her cigarette, "is really, to my mind, the most bourgeois of vices. It comes from a want of elasticity in the emotional fibres. Nothing in life has bored me so much as the faithfulness of my lovers."
"You ought to put all this into one of your books," John suggested.
"I probably shall, when I write my reminiscences," she replied. "Tell me about this woman. And don"t stand about in that restless way at the other end of the room. Bring a chair close to me--there, close to my side!"
John obeyed, and his visitor contemplated him thoughtfully through a little cloud of tobacco-smoke.
"Yes," she decided, "there is no use denying it. You are hatefully good-looking, and somehow or other I think your clothes have improved you. You have a little more air than when you first came to town. Are you quite sure that you haven"t made up your mind about this woman in a hurry?"
"Quite sure," John laughed. "I suppose I am rather an idiot, but I am addicted to the vice of which you were speaking."
She nodded.
"I should imagine," she said, "that you were not an adept in the art of flirtation. Is it true that the woman is Louise Maurel?"
"Quite true," John replied.
"But don"t you know--"
She broke off abruptly. She saw the face of the man by her side suddenly change, and her instinct warned her of the danger into which she was rushing.
"You surprise me very much," she said. "Louise Maurel is a very wonderful woman, but she seems to spend the whole of her time with my cousin, the prince."
"They are, without doubt, very friendly," John a.s.sented. "They have a good many interests in common, and the prince is connected with the syndicate which finances the theater. I do not imagine, however, that the prince wishes to marry her, or she him."
Lady Hilda began to laugh, softly, but as if genuinely amused. John sat and watched her in ominous silence. Not the flicker of a smile parted his set lips. His visitor, however, was undisturbed. She leaned over and patted his hand.
"Simple Simon!" she murmured, leaning a little toward him. "If you go looking like that, I shall pat your cheeks, too. You are really much too nice-looking to wear such thunderclouds!"
"Perhaps if we chose some other subject of conversation--" John said stiffly.
"Oh, dear me!" she interrupted. "Very well! You really are a most trying person, you know. I put up with a great deal from you."
John was silent. Her face darkened a little, and an angry light flashed in her eyes.
"Well, I"ll leave you alone, if you like," she decided, tossing her cigarette into the grate. "If my friendship isn"t worth having, let it go. It hasn"t often been offered in vain. There are more men in London than I could count who would go down on their knees for such a visit as I am paying you. And you--you," she added, with a little tremble of real anger in her tone, "you"re too hatefully polite and priggish! Come and ring the bell for the lift. I am going!"
She slid gracefully to her feet, shook the cigarette ash from her clothes, and picked up her m.u.f.f.
"You really are an egregious, thick-headed, obstinate countryman," she declared, as she moved toward the door. "You haven"t either manners or sensibility. I am a perfect idiot to waste my time upon you. I wouldn"t have done it," she added, as he followed her dumbly down the corridor, "if I hadn"t rather liked you!"
"I am very sorry," he declared. "I don"t know quite what I have done. I do appreciate your friendship. You have been very kind to me indeed."
She hesitated as his finger touched the bell of the lift, and glanced at the watch on her wrist.
"Well," she said, "if you want to be friends, I will give you one last chance. I am doing what sounds rather a ghastly thing--I am having a little week-end party down at my cottage at Bourne End. It will be rather like camping out, but some interesting people are coming. Will you motor down on Sat.u.r.day evening and stay till Sunday night or Monday?"
"I shall be very pleased indeed," John replied. "It is very good of you to ask me. When I come, I"d like, if I may," he went on, "to tell you about myself, and why I am here, and about Louise."
She sighed, and watched the top of the lift as it came up. Then she dropped her veil.
"You will find me," she a.s.sured him, as she gave him the tips of her fingers, "a most sympathetic listener."
Louise and Sophy came to dine that evening with John in the grill-room at the Milan. They arrived a little late and were still in morning clothes. Louise was looking pale and tired, and her greeting was almost listless.
"We are dead beat," Sophy exclaimed. "We"ve been having a secret rehearsal this afternoon without Graillot, and he came in just as we were finishing. He was perfectly furious!"