“No, sir. I have often wished I had. I ought to have spoken to father about it. Father could never deny me anything.”
Reggie blinked. His misgiving returned. Either his ears, like his eyes, were playing him tricks, or else this waiter-chappie was talking pure drivel.
“What’s that?”
“Sir?”
“What did you say?”
“I said, ‘No, sir, I have no brother’.”
“Didn’t you say something else?”
“No, sir.”
“What?”
“No, sir.”
Reggie’s worst suspicions were confirmed.
“Good God!” he muttered. “Then I am!”
Miss Faraday, when he joined her on the settee, wanted an explanation.
“What were you talking to that man about, Mr. Byng? You seemed to be having a very interesting conversation.”
“I was asking him if he had a brother.”
Miss Faraday glanced quickly at him. She had had a feeling for some time during the evening that his manner had been strange.
“A brother? What made you ask him that?”
“He–I mean–that is to say–what I mean is, he looked the sort of chap who might have a brother. Lots of those fellows have!”
Alice Faraday’s face took on a motherly look. She was fonder of Reggie than that love-sick youth supposed, and by sheer accident he had stumbled on the right road to her consideration. Alice Faraday was one of those girls whose dream it is to be a ministering angel to some chosen man, to be a good influence to him and raise him to an appreciation of nobler things. Hitherto, Reggie’s personality had seemed to her agreeable, but negative. A positive vice like over-indulgence in alcohol altered him completely. It gave him a significance.
“I told him to get you a lemonade,” said Reggie. “He seems to be taking his time about it. Hi!”
George approached deferentially.
“Sir?”
“Where’s that lemonade?”
“Lemonade, sir?”
“Didn’t I ask you to bring this lady a glass of lemonade?”
“I did not understand you to do so, sir.”
“But, Great Scott! What were we chatting about, then?”
“You were telling me a diverting story about an Irishman who landed in New York looking for work, sir. You would like a glass of lemonade, sir? Very good, sir.”
Alice placed a hand gently on Reggie’s arm.
“Don’t you think you had better lie down for a little and rest, Mr. Byng? I’m sure it would do you good.”
The solicitous note in her voice made Reggie quiver like a jelly. He had never known her speak like that before. For a moment he was inclined to lay bare his soul; but his nerve was broken. He did not want her to mistake the outpouring of a strong man’s heart for the irresponsible ravings of a too hearty diner. It was one of Life’s ironies. Here he was for the first time all keyed up to go right ahead, and he couldn’t do it.
“It’s the heat of the room,” said Alice. “Shall we go and sit outside on the terrace? Never mind about the lemonade. I’m not really thirsty.”
Reggie followed her like a lamb. The prospect of the cool night air was grateful.
“That,” murmured George, as he watched them depart, “ought to hold you for a while!”
He perceived Albert hastening towards him.
CHAPTER 13.
Albert was in a hurry. He skimmed over the carpet like a water-beetle.
“Quick!” he said.
He cast a glance at the maid, George’s co-worker. She was reading a novelette with her back turned.
“Tell ‘er you’ll be back in five minutes,” said Albert, jerking a thumb.
“Unnecessary. She won’t notice my absence. Ever since she discovered that I had never met her cousin Frank in America, I have meant nothing in her life.”
“Then come on.”
“Where?”
“I’ll show you.”
That it was not the nearest and most direct route which they took to the trysting-place George became aware after he had followed his young guide through doors and up stairs and down stairs and had at last come to a halt in a room to which the sound of the music penetrated but faintly. He recognized the room. He had been in it before. It was the same room where he and Billie Dore had listened to Keggs telling the story of Lord Leonard and his leap. That window there, he remembered now, opened on to the very balcony from which the historic Leonard had done his spectacular dive. That it should be the scene of this other secret meeting struck George as appropriate. The coincidence appealed to him.