DELORA RETURNS
At a few minutes before twelve I entered the Milan by the Court
entrance, and received at once some astonishing news. Ashley, who came
out to meet me, drew me at once upon one side with a little gesture of
apology.
"Mr. Delora has returned, sir," he said.
For the moment I had forgotten the sensation which Delora's
non-arrival on that first evening had made, and which had always left
behind it a flavor of mystery. I could see from Ashley's face that he
was puzzled.
"Is Mr. Delora with his niece?" I asked.
"They have moved into Number 35, sir," Ashley told me. "Mr. Delora
complained very much of his rooms, said they were too small, and
threatened to move to Claridge's. Number 35 is the best suite we
have."
I stood, for a moment, thinking. Ashley, meanwhile, had retreated to
his place behind the counter. I approached him slowly.
"Ashley," I said, "ring up and tell Mr. Delora that I have called."
Ashley went at once to the telephone.
"Don't be surprised," I said, "if his reply isn't exactly polite. I
don't think he is very well pleased with me just now."
I strolled away for a few minutes to look into the cafe, where the
waiters were preparing for luncheon. There was no sign of Louis. When
I returned, Ashley leaned forward to me from the other side of the
desk.
"Mr. Delora wishes you to step up, sir," he said.
I was a little surprised, but I moved promptly to the lift.
"On the third floor, isn't it?" I asked.
"Exactly, sir," Ashley answered. "Shall I send a page with you?"
I shook my head.
"I can find it all right," I said.
My knock at the door was answered by a dark-faced valet. He ushered me
into a large and very handsome sitting-room. Felicia and Delora were
standing talking together near the mantelpiece. They both ceased at my
entrance, but I had an instinctive feeling that I had been the subject
of their conversation. Felicia greeted me timidly. There were signs of
tears in her face, and I felt that by some means or other this man had
been able to reassert his influence over her. Delora himself was a
changed being. He was dressed with the almost painful exactness of the
French man of fashion. His slight black imperial was trimmed to a
point, his moustache upturned with a distinctly foreign air. He wore a
wonderful pin in his carefully arranged tie, and a tiny piece of red
ribbon in his button-hole. The manicurist whom I had met in the
passage had evidently just left him, for as I entered he was regarding
his nails thoughtfully. He did not offer me his hand. He stared at me
instead with a certain restrained insolence.
"I should be glad to know, Captain Rotherby," he said calmly, "to what
I owe this intrusion?"
"I am sorry that you look upon it in that light, sir," I answered. "My
visit, as a matter of fact, was intended for your niece."
She took a step towards me, but Delora's outstretched arm barred her
progress.
"My niece is very much honored," he answered, "but her friends and her
acquaintances are mine. You were so good as to render me some service
on our arrival at Charing Cross a few days ago, but you have since
then presumed upon that service to an unwarrantable extent."
"I am sorry that you should think so," I answered.
"I did not know," Delora continued, "that the young men of your
country had time enough to spare to devote themselves to other
people's business in the way that you have done. I came to this
country upon a peculiar and complicated mission, intrusted to me by my
own government. The chief condition of success was that it should be
performed in secrecy. You were only a chance acquaintance, and how on
earth you should have had the impertinence to associate yourself with
my doings I cannot imagine! But the fact remains that you made my task
more difficult, and, in fact, at one time seriously endangered its
success. Not only that," Delora continued, "but you have chosen to
ally yourself with those whose object it has been to wreck my
undertaking. Yet, with the full knowledge of these things, you have
had the supreme impudence to force your company upon my niece,--even,
I understand, to pay her your addresses!"
"The dowry of fifty thousand pounds," I began,--
He stretched out his hand with a commanding air.
"We will not allude to that, sir," he declared. "I was forced to make
an attempt to bribe you, I admit, but it was under very difficult
circumstances. As it is, I am only thankful that you declined my
offer. I have arranged matters so that your cable shall do me no
harm. It has precipitated matters by twenty-four hours, but that is no
one's loss and my gain. When I heard your name sent up I could
scarcely believe my ears, but since you are here, since you have
ventured to pay this call, I wish to inform you, on behalf of my niece
and myself, that we consider your further acquaintance undesirable in
the extreme."
The man's deportment was magnificent. But for the fact that I had long
ago lost all faith in him I should have felt, without the shadow of a
doubt, that I had made a supreme fool of myself. But as it was, my
faith was only shaken. The hideous possibility that I had made a
mistake was there like a shadow, but I could not accept it as a
certainty.
"Mr. Delora," I said, "from one point of view I am very glad to hear
you speak like this. If I have been mistaken in supposing that your
extraordinary behavior in London--"
"But what the devil has my extraordinary behavior got to do with you?"
Delora demanded, with the first note of anger in his tone which he had
shown.
"My interest was for your niece, sir," I answered.
"My niece does not require your protection or your interest," Delora
answered. "It seems to me that you have chosen a queer way to return
the hospitality which it was our pleasure to extend to your brother in
Brazil. I have still a busy morning, sir, and I have seen you for
this one reason only: to have you clearly understand that we--my niece
and I--do not find your further acquaintance desirable."
She made another little movement towards me, and by doing so came into
the light. I saw that her eyes were red with weeping, and
notwithstanding an angry exclamation from Delora she held out her
hands to me.
"Capitaine Rotherby," she said, "I believe, I do, indeed, that you
have acted out of kindness to me. My uncle, as you see, is very angry.
What he has said has not been from my heart, but from his. Yet, as you
know, I must obey!"
I raised her fingers to my lips, and I smiled into her face.
"Felicia," I said, "do not be afraid. This is not the end!"
Delora turned to the servant whom he had summoned.
"Show this gentleman out, Francois," he said coldly.
* * * * *
Lamartine was a few minutes late. He drove up in a large motor-car
with an elderly gentleman, who remained inside, and with whom he
talked for a few minutes earnestly before he joined me.
"You forgive me?" he asked, as he handed his hat and stick to an
attendant. "The chief kept me talking. He brought me down here
himself."
I nodded.
"It is of no consequence," I said. "I have some news for you."
"Nothing," Lamartine declared, passing his arm through mine, "will
surprise me."
"Delora is here," I said, "with his niece!"
Lamartine stopped short.
"Under his own name?" he asked. "Do you mean that he has thrown off
all disguise? That he is here as Maurice Delora?"
"I never knew his Christian name," I answered, "but he is here as
Delora, right enough. He has taken the largest suite in the Court, and
for the last quarter of an hour he has been dressing me down in great
shape."
"He is magnificent!" Lamartine said softly, "If he can keep it up for
twenty-four hours longer, he who has been a beggar practically for ten
years will be worth a great fortune!"
"So that," I remarked, "was the stake!"
"A worthy one, is it not so, my friend?" Lamartine declared.
"Does he win?" I asked.
"Heaven knows!" Lamartine answered. "Even now I cannot tell
you. Unless something turns up, I should say that it was very likely."
We entered the cafe. When Louis saw us arrive together he stood for a
moment motionless upon the floor. His eyes seemed to question us with
swift and fierce curiosity. Had we arrived together? Was this a chance
meeting? How much was either in the other's confidence? These things
and many others he seemed to ask. Then he came slowly towards us. A
ray of sunshine, streaming through the glass roof of the courtyard and
reflected through the window, lay across the floor of the cafe. As
Louis passed over it I saw a change in the man. Always colorless, his
white cheeks were graven now with deep, cob-webbed lines. His eyes
seemed to have receded into his head. His manner lacked that touch of
graceful and not unbecoming confidence which one had grown to admire.
"What can I do for you, messieurs?" he asked, with a little bow. "A
table for two--yes? This way."
We followed him to a small table in the best part of the room.
"Monsieur had good sport in the country?" he asked me.
"Excellent, Louis!" I answered. "How are things in town?"
Louis shrugged his shoulders and glanced around.
"As one sees," he answered, "here we are fortunate. Here we are
always, always busy. We turn people away all the time, because we
prefer to serve well our old customers."
"Louis," I said, "you are wonderful!"
"What will the gentlemen eat?" Louis asked.
I looked at Lamartine, and Lamartine looked at me. The same thought
was in the minds of both of us. Curiously enough we felt a certain
delicacy in letting Louis perceive our dilemma!
"Those cold grouse look excellent," Lamartine said to me, pointing to
the sideboard.
"Cold grouse are very good," Louis assented. "I will have one
specially prepared and sent up."
Lamartine shook his head.
"Bring over the dish there, and let us look at them, Louis," he said.
Louis obeyed him. There was no alternative. Lamartine, without
hesitation, coolly took one of the birds on to his own plate.
"Our luncheon is arranged for, Louis," he said. "Let a waiter bring us
a dish and carving-knife. I like to carve myself at the table."
"But certainly!" Louis assented, and, calling a waiter, he glided
away. Lamartine and I exchanged glances.
"I fancy we are pretty safe with this bird," he remarked.
"Absolutely," I answered. "He never had the ghost of a chance to
tamper with it. The question of drinks is a little difficult," I
continued.
"And I am very thirsty," Lamartine said. "An unopened bottle of hock,
eh?"
I shook my head.
"No good," I answered. "I am convinced that Louis has a cellar of his
own. Did you notice the fellow, by the bye?" I went on. "He shows
signs of the worry of this thing. Somehow or other I do not fancy that
Louis will be in this place a week from to-day."
"That may be," Lamartine answered, "but I must drink!"
There was a bottle of whiskey upon the table next to us, from which
its occupant had been helping himself. He rose now to go, and I seized
the opportunity the moment he had left, and before the waiter could
clear the table I had secured the bottle.
"We won't risk soda-water," I said. "Whiskey and water is good
enough."
The one waiter whom I disliked--a creature of Louis', as I knew
well--came hurrying forward and endeavored to possess himself of the
bottle.
"Let me get you another bottle of whiskey, sir," he said.
I shook my head.
"This one will do, thank you," I said.
"Soda-water or Perrier, sir?" he asked.
"Neither, thank you," I answered.
The man moved away, and I saw him in a corner talking to
Louis. Lamartine served the grouse, and leaned across the table to me.
"Captain Rotherby," he said, "I think I will tell you now why,
notwithstanding the risk of Monsieur Louis, I asked you to lunch with
me here at this restaurant. But look! See who comes!"
He laid his fingers upon my coat-sleeve. I turned my head. Felicia was
sailing down the room,--Felicia exquisitely dressed as usual, walking
with a soft rustle of lace,--delightful, alluring; and in her wake
Delora himself, tall, well-groomed, aristocratic, looking around him
with mild but slightly bored interest. Louis was piloting them to a
table, the best in the place. We watched them seat themselves. Delora,
through a horn-rimmed eyeglass, studied the menu. Felicia, drawing off
her gloves, looked a little wearily out into the busy courtyard. So
they were sitting when the thing happened which Lamartine, I believe,
had expected, but which, for me, was the most wonderful thing that had
yet come to pass amongst this tangle of strange circumstances!