"I must congratulate you," he said indifferently. "This"--with a comprehensive wave towards her dress and the diamonds at her throat--"is better than the old days."
"But perhaps you have forgotten so long as--what is it?--ten--no, five years ago?"
He furled and unfurled the fan in silence, and wondered who had given her the Parma violets in her hair.
"You--you--were going to--to travel, and write about it--strange places----" she faltered.
"Oh, ah! yes, I believe I was--five years ago."
"You _have_ travelled?" she ventured at last.
"Oh, yes! I've done nothing else for five years. I've shot tigers, bears--I've lived with Chinamen and negroes--chummed with cannibals once--oh!"--with a laugh--"I've had a fine time!"
Her hostess brought up a man to be introduced, and when she turned again, the chair was empty.
There was an added pathos in the beautiful voice.
_La belle Philomèle_ brought tears to many thousands of eyes, but her own were dry and restless. It was dawning on her that she had made a mistake--five years ago.
"Seen Hugh Hawksleigh?" she heard one man say to another. "Never been so disappointed in a chap in my life. Years ago he promised great things. Those articles of his on 'Foreign Ways and Doings' made quite a sensation, you know. And there was some talk of wild travels and a book that was going to be _the_ book of the day. The travels are all right, but where's the book?"
"The usual thing--a woman," drawled the other. "Didn't you know? Some pretty coquette--the usual game--but the cost was heavier than usual--to him. It knocked it out of him, you know. I never saw a fellow so hard hit. That was five years ago, and he's never written a line since. Poor fellow!"
The knowledge that she had made a mistake five years ago was growing plainer to her.
At the end of the fortnight she met him and asked him to come and see her.
Her eyes grew too big for the small, sad face.
She met him again, and asked him why he had not come.
He looked down into the sweet, true eyes, and his love weakened his will again.
He promised he would come. He came, and stayed five minutes. He looked at her sternly as he greeted her.
"Why do you want me?" he said, and watched the colour come and go in her cheeks with pitiless eyes.