Part 17 (2/2)
”You're not sorry that we came?” he asked.
She shook her head. ”I think not,” she replied.
”Why only 'think'?”
She roused herself with an effort.
”I don't know, Nigel,” she confessed. ”I can't imagine what is wrong with me. I feel s.h.i.+very--nervous--as though something were going to happen.”
He looked at her curiously. This was a Maggie whom he scarcely recognised.
”Presentiments?” he asked.
”Absurd, isn't it!” she replied, with a weak smile. ”I'll get over it directly. I don't think I am going to like Prince Shan, Nigel.”
”Well, you haven't been long making up your mind,” he observed. ”I shouldn't have thought you had been able even to see his face.”
”I had a queer, lightning-like glimpse of it,” she reflected. ”To me it seemed as though it were carved out of granite, and as though all that was human about him were the mouth and the eyes. I wish he hadn't been looking.”
”Are you flattering yourself that he will recognise you?” Nigel asked.
”I know that he will,” she answered simply.
In a corner of the white-and-gold restaurant at the Ritz on the following evening, Prince Shan and Immelan dined tete-a-tete, Immelan in the best of spirits, talking of the pleasant trifles of the world, drinking champagne and pointing out notabilities; Prince Shan, his features and expression unchanging, and his face as white as the perfectly fitting s.h.i.+rt he wore. His clothes were fas.h.i.+onable and distinctive, his black pearls un.o.btrusive but wonderful, his smoothly brushed dark hair, his immaculate finger nails, his skilfully tied tie all indicative of his close touch with western civilization. There was nothing, in fact, except his sphinx-like expression, the slightly unusual shape of his brilliant eyes, and his queer air of personal detachment, to denote the Oriental. He drank water, he ate sparingly, he preserved an almost unbroken silence, yet he had the air of one giving courteous attention to everything which his companion said and finding interest in it. Only once he asked a question.
”You are well acquainted here, my host,” he said. ”You know the trio at the table just behind the entrance--the attractive young lady with her chaperon, and a gentleman who I rather fancy must be an old college acquaintance whose name I have forgotten. Tell me some more about them in their private capacity, and not as saviours of their country.”
Immelan frowned slightly as he glanced across the room.
”There is not much to tell,” he answered, without enthusiasm. ”The young lady is, as you know, Lady Maggie Trent. The older lady, with the white hair, is, I believe, her aunt. The name of their escort is Lord Dorminster. You would probably know him by the name of Kingley--he has only just succeeded to the t.i.tle.”
Prince Shan was looking straight across the room, his eyes travelling over the heads of the many brilliant little groups of diners to rest apparently upon an empty s.p.a.ce in the white-and-gold walls. He had been a great traveller, but always his first evening, when he came once more into touch with a civilisation more meretricious but more poignant than his own, resulted in this disturbing cloud of sensations. His companion's voice sounded emptily in his ears.
”They say that the young lady is engaged to Lord Dorminster. That is only gossip, however.”
For the second time Prince Shan looked directly at the little group. His eyes rested upon Maggie, simply dressed but wonderfully _soignee_, very alluring, laughing up into the face of her escort. Their eyes did not actually meet, but each was conscious of the other's regard. Once more he felt the disturbance of the West.
”If we should chance to come together naturally,” he said, ”it would gratify me to make the acquaintance of Lady Maggie Trent.”
CHAPTER XIV
The introduction which Prince Shan had requested came about very naturally. The lounge of the hotel was more than usually crowded that evening, and the table towards which an attentive _maitre d'hotel_ conducted Immelan and his companion was next to the one reserved by Nigel. The transference of a chair opened up conversation. Immelan was bland and ingenuous as usual, introducing every one, glad, apparently, to make one common party. Prince Shan remained by Maggie's side after the introduction had been effected. A chair which Immelan schemed to offer him elsewhere he calmly refused.
”This is my first evening in London, Lady Maggie,” he said. ”I am fortunate.”
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