Part 32 (2/2)
”Don Giovanni, a cenar teco M' invitasti--e son venuto!”
Lionel let down the window.
”Do you see that, Miss Girond?”
Far away, above the blue mists and the jet-black trees (for they were out in the country by this time), hung a small, opaque disk of dingy orange.
”It is the moon, Leo!” cried Nina. ”Ah, but so dull!”
”That is the fog lying over the low country,” he said; ”it may be clearer when we get to the top of the hill. It is to be hoped so, at all events. Fancy a theatrical company going out to a rustic festivity and not provided with a better moon than that!”
However, when they finally reached the Star and Garter, they had forgotten about the moon and the aspect of the night; for here were the wide steps and the portico all ablaze with a friendly yellow glow; and just inside stood Mr. Lehmann, with the most s.h.i.+ning s.h.i.+rt-front ever beheld, receiving his guests as they arrived. Here, too, was Lord Denysfort, a feeble-looking young man, with huge ears and no chin to speak of, who, however, had shown some sense in engaging a professional whip to drive the four-in-hand down through the fog. Of course there was a good deal of bustle and hurry and confusion--friends anxious about the non-arrival of other friends and so forth--in the midst of which Lionel said to his two companions,
”Dinner will be a long time yet. The ladies who have driven down will be making themselves beautiful for another quarter of an hour. Suppose we go out on the balcony, and see whether any of Miss Girond's statues are visible.”
They agreed to this, for they had not taken off their cloaks; so he led them along the hall and round by a smaller pa.s.sage to a door which he opened; they got outside, and found themselves in the hushed, still night. Below them, on the wide terrace, they could make out the wan, gray, plaster pillars and pediments and statues among the jet-black shrubs; but beyond that all was chaos; the river and the wooded valley were shrouded in a dense mist, pierced only here and there by a small orange ray--some distant window or lamp. They wandered down the wide steps; they crossed to the parapet; they gazed into that great unknown gulf, in which they could descry nothing but one or two spectral black trees, their topmost branches coming up into the clearer air. Then they walked along to the southern end of the terrace; and here they came in sight of the moon--a far-distant world on fire it seemed to be, especially when the sombre golden radiance touched a pa.s.sing tag of cloud and changed it into lurid smoke. All the side of the vast building looking towards them was dark--save for one window that burned red.
”Is that where we dine?” asked Nina, as they returned.
”Oh, no,” Lionel answered. ”Our room is at the end of the pa.s.sage by which we came out--I suppose the shutters are closed. I fancy that is the coffee-room.”
”I am going to have a peep in,” Mlle. Girond said, as they ascended the steps again; and when they had reached the balcony she went along to the window, leaving her companions behind, for they did not share in this childish curiosity. But the next moment little Capitaine Crepin came back, in a great state of excitement.
”Come, come, come!” she said, breathlessly. ”Ah, the poor young gentleman--all alone!--my heart feels for him--Mr. Moore, it is piteous.”
”Well, what have you discovered now?” said Lionel, indifferently, for he was getting hungry.
”Come and see--come and see! All alone--no one to say a word--”
Lionel and Nina followed their eager guide along the dark balcony, until they had got near the brilliant red window. They looked in. The room was bright with crimson-shaded lamps, and its solitary occupant they made out clearly enough; it was Mr. Percival Miles--in evening dress, standing before the fireplace, gazing into the coals, his hands in his pockets.
”Ah,” said Nina, as she quickly drew back, ”that is the young gentleman who sometimes waits for Miss Burgoyne, is it not, Leo? And he is all by himself. It is hard.”
”You think it is hard, Nina?” Lionel said, turning to her, as the three spies simultaneously withdrew.
”Oh, yes, yes!” Nina exclaimed.
”Well, you see,” continued Lionel, as he opened the gla.s.s door to let his companions re-enter the hotel, ”an outsider who comes skylarking after an actress, and finds her surrounded by her professional friends and her professional interests, has to undergo a good deal of tribulation. That poor fellow has come down here to dine all by himself, merely to be near her. But, mind you, it was that same fellow who wanted to kill me.”
”He, kill you!” Nina said, scornfully. ”You allowed him to live--yes?”
”But I don't bear any malice. No, I don't. I'm going to make that boy just the very happiest young man there is in the kingdom of Great Britain this evening.”
”Ah, I know, I know!” exclaimed Nina, delightedly.
”Oh, no, you don't know. You don't know anything about it. What you and Miss Girond have got to do now is to go into the cloak-room and leave your things, and afterwards I'll meet you in the dining-room.”
”Yes, but you are going to Mr. Lehmann!” said Nina, with a laugh. ”I do not know?--yes, I do know. Ah, that is generous of you, Leo--that is n.o.ble.”
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