"I will not disturb you," Almer had said, "but I, too, am in no mood for sleep. I have letters to write, and if you happen to need society, come to my room, and we will have one of our old chats."
As he quitted the study to seek his friend the soft silvery chimes of a clock on the mantel proclaimed the hour. He counted the strokes. It was midnight.
When John Vanbrugh found himself alone he cried:
"What! Tired of my company already? That is a fine compliment to pay to a gentleman of my breeding. Gautran! Gautran!"
"A capital disappearance," he continued; "in its way dramatic. The scene, the time, all agreeing. It does not please me. Do you hear me, Gautran," he shouted. "It does not please me. If I were not tied to this spot in the execution of a most important mission, I would after you, my friend, and teach you better manners. He drank my brandy, too, the ungrateful rogue. A waste of good liquor--a sheer waste! He gets no more without paying its equivalent."
Vanbrugh indulged in this soliloquy without allowing his wrath to interfere with his watch; not for a single moment did he shift his gaze from the windows of the Advocate's study.
"Now what induced him," he said after a pause, "to spirit himself away so mysteriously? From the violent fancy he expressed for my company I regarded him as a fixture; one would have supposed he intended to stick to me like a limpet to a rock. Suddenly, without rhyme or reason, and just as the conversation was getting interesting, he takes French leave, and makes himself scarce.
"I hope he has not left his ghost behind him--the ghost of pretty Madeline. Not likely, though. When a partnership such as that is entered into--uncommonly unpleasant and inconvenient it must be--it is not dissolved so easily.
"Perhaps he was spirited away--wanted, after the fashion of our dear Lothario, Don Giovanni. There was no blue fire about, however, and I smell no brimstone. No--he disappeared of his own prompting; it will repay thinking over. He saw his phantom--even my presence could not keep her from him. He murdered her--not a doubt of it--and the Advocate has proved his innocence.
"Were it not a double tragedy I should feel disposed to laugh.
"We were speaking of the Advocate when he darted off. But you cannot escape me, Gautran; we shall meet again. An acquaintanceship so happily commenced must not be allowed to drop--nor shall it, while it suits my purpose.