Part 73 (1/2)
”The Ricci? Why do you want to know, madame?”
She made a contemptuous lip.
”I knew her first,” said Cliffe, ”some years ago in Milan. She was then at La Scala--walking on--paid for her good looks. Then somebody sent her to Paris to the Conservatoire, which she only left this spring. This is her first Italian engagement. Her people are shopkeepers here--in the Merceria--which helped her. She is as vain as a peac.o.c.k and as dangerous as a pet panther.”
”Dangerous!” Kitty's scorn had pa.s.sed into her voice.
”Well, Italy is still the country of the knife,” said Cliffe, lightly--”and I could still hire a bravo or two--in Venice--if I wanted them.”
”Does the Ricci hire them?”
Cliffe shrugged his shoulders.
”She'd do it without winking, if it suited her.” Then, after a pause--”Do you still wonder why I should have chosen her society?”
”Oh no,” said Kitty, hastily. ”You told me.”
”As much as a _friend_ cares to know?”
She nodded, flus.h.i.+ng, and dropped the subject.
Cliffe's mouth still smiled, but his eyes studied her with a veiled and sinister intensity.
”I have not seen the lady for a week,” he resumed. ”She pesters me with notes. I promised to go and see her in a new play to-morrow night, but--”
”Oh, go!” said Kitty--”by all means go!”
”'Ruy Blas' in Italian? I think not. Ah! did you see that gleam on the Campanile?--marvellous!... Miladi, I have a question to ask you.”
”_Dites!_” said Kitty.
”Did you put me into your book?”
”Certainly.”
”What kind of things did you say?”
”The worst I could!”
”Ah! How shall I get a copy?” said Cliffe, musing.
She made no answer, but she was conscious of a sudden movement--was it of terror? At the bottom of her soul was she, indeed, afraid of the man beside her?
”By-the-way,” he resumed, ”you promised to tell me your news of this morning. But you haven't told me a word!”
She turned away. She had gathered her furs around her, and her face was almost hidden by them.
”Nothing is settled,” she said, in a cold, reluctant voice.
”Which means that you won't tell me anything more?”