Page:A M Williamson - The Motor Maid.djvu/40

26 I half expected some such crushing protest, and it was only when the weary duke had turned his back, presumably to execute my order, that I sank into my chair with a sigh of relief after strain.

Just at that moment I met the eye of the lady of the lift, and when the waiter reappeared with a small cup, on a charger large enough to have upheld the head of John the Baptist, she looked again. In five minutes I had finished the consommé, and it became painful to linger. Rising, I made for the door, which seemed a mile away, and I did not lift my head in passing the table where the lady sat behind her roses. I heard a rustling as I went by, however, a crisp rustling like flower-leaves whispering in a breeze, or a woman's silk ruffles stroking each other, which followed me out into the hall.

Then the pleasant voice I had heard near the lift spoke behind me:

"Won't you have your coffee with me in the garden?"

I could hardly believe at first that it was for me the invitation was intended, but turning with a little start, I saw it repeated in a pair of gentle gray eyes set rather wide apart in a delicate, colourless face.

"Oh! thank you!" I hesitated. "I ⸺"

"Do forgive me," went on the lady, "but your face interested me this morning, and as we 're all rather curious about strangers—we idle ones here—I took the liberty of asking the manager who you were. He told me ⸺"

"About the Princess?" I asked, when she paused as if slightly embarrassed.

"He told me that you said you had come to Cannes to be her companion. He did n't tell me she was dead, poor