Part 12 (2/2)

Annoyed with himself, though he knew not why, he turned his gaze from her to the man who had brought in the supper,--a hunchback, who, notwithstanding his deformity, was powerfully built, and of a countenance which, marked as it was with the drawn pathetic look of long-continued physical suffering, was undeniably handsome. His large brown eyes, like those of a faithful dog, followed every movement of Lotys with anxious and wistful affection, and Leroy, noticing this, began to wonder whether she was his wife or daughter? Or was she related in either of these ways to Sergius Thord? His reflections were interrupted by a slight touch from Max Graub who was seated next to him.

”Will you drink with these fellows?” said Graub, in a cautious whisper--”Expect to be ill, if you do!”

”You shall prescribe for me!” answered Leroy in the same low tone--”I faithfully promise to call in your a.s.sistance! But drink with them I must, and will!”

Graub gave a short sigh and a shrug, and said no more. The hunchback was going the round of the table, filling tall gla.s.ses with light Bavarian beer.

”Where is the little Pequita?” asked Zouche, addressing him--”Have you sent her to bed already, Sholto?”

Sholto looked timorously round till he met the bright rea.s.suring glance of Lotys, and then he replied hesitatingly--

”Yes!--no--I have not sent the little one to bed;--she returned from her work at the theatre, tired out--quite tired out, poor child! She is asleep now.”

”Ha ha! A few years more, and she will not sleep!” said Zouche--”Once in her teens--”

”Once in her teens, she leaves the theatre and comes to me,” said Lotys, ”And you will see very little of her, Zouche, and you will know less!

That will do, Sholto! Good-night!”

”Good-night!” returned the hunchback--”I thank you, Madame!--I thank you, gentlemen!”

And with a slight salutation, not devoid of grace, he left the room.

Zouche was sulky, and pus.h.i.+ng aside his gla.s.s of beer, poured out for himself some strong spirit from a bottle instead.

”You do not favour me to-night, Lotys,” he said irritably--”You interrupt and cross me in everything I say!”

”Is it not a woman's business to interrupt and cross a man?” queried Lotys, with a laugh,--”As I have told you before, Zouche, I will not have Sholto worried!”

”Who worries him?” grumbled Zouche--”Not I!”

”Yes, you!--you worry him on his most sensitive point--his daughter,”

said Lotys;--”Why can you not leave the child alone? Sholto is an Englishman,” she explained, turning to Pasquin Leroy and his companions--”His history is a strange one enough. He is the rightful heir to a large estate in England, but he was born deformed. His father hated him, and preferred the second son, who was straight and handsome.

So Sholto disappeared.”

”Disappeared!” echoed Leroy--”You mean----”

”I mean that he left his father's house one morning, and never returned.

The clothes he wore were found floating in the river near by, and it was concluded that he had been drowned while bathing. The second son, therefore, inherited the property; and poor Sholto was scarcely missed; certainly not mourned. Meanwhile he went away, and got on board a Spanish trading boat bound for Cadiz. At Cadiz he found work, and also something that sweetened work--love! He married a pretty Spanish girl who adored him, and--as often happens when lovers rejoice too much in their love--she died after a year's happiness. Sholto is all alone in the world with the little child his Spanish wife left him, Pequita. She is only eleven years old, but her gift of dancing is marvellous, and she gets employment at one of the cheap theatres here. If an influential manager could see her performance, she might coin money.”

”The influential manager would probably cheat her,” said Zouche,--”Things are best left alone. Sholto is content!”

”Are you content?” asked Johan Zegota, helping himself from the bottle that stood near him.

”I? Why, no! I should not be here if I were!”

”Discontent, then, is your chief bond of union?” said Axel Regor, beginning to take part in the conversation.

”It is the very knot that ties us all together!” said Zouche with enthusiasm.--”Discontent is the mother of progress! Adam was discontented with the garden of Eden,--and found a whole world outside its gates!”

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