Cant afford to live in London, the Captain answered, rolling a cigarette carefully between his fingers, before lighting it.
Hard up! yet you refuse my offer! observed Zertho, laughing. Youre an enigma, Brooker. Money would put you on your legs again, my dear fellow.
I dont doubt it, the other replied. But I have reasons.
Zertho dAuzac knit his dark brows, glancing at the Captain with a look of quick suspicion.
You have expectations for Liane eh?
No reply escaped Brookers lips. He was thinking deeply.
Any other man wouldnt make you such an offer, the other continued, in a tone of contempt.
Instantly there was an angry glint in the Captains eyes.
I tell you, Zertho, Ill never let my daughter marry you. You, of all men, shall not have her no, by Heaven! not for a hundred thousand pounds.
The others face darkened in anger. But he turned away, giving vent to a short, harsh laugh, and with feigned good humour advanced towards the window, and whistling softly, took out his cigarette-case, a plain silver one, whereon his coronet and monogram were engraved.
At that moment two graceful, bright-faced girls entered the gate from the road, sauntering leisurely up the path towards the house. Dressed alike in dark well-made skirts, cool-looking blouses of cream crêpon and straw sailor hats with black bands, they walked together, the sound of their laughter ringing through the room. The taller of the pair was Liane Brooker, slim, with infinite grace, a face undeniably beautiful, a pair of clear grey eyes the depths of which seemed unfathomable, nose and mouth that denoted buoyancy of spirits and sincerity of heart, hair dressed neatly in the latest mode, and that easy swing about her carriage peculiar alone to Frenchwomen. Her warmth of Southern blood and large expressive eyes she inherited from her mother, who came from St Tropez in the Var, and her strange cosmopolitan education had already made her a thorough woman of the world. Her character was altogether a curiously complex one. Though fresh, bright and happy, she, the daughter of an adventurer, had seen a good deal of the seamy side of life, where the women were déclassé, and the men rogues and outsiders; yet, in fairness to her father, it must be admitted that, even in his most reckless moments, he had always exerted towards both girls keen solicitude. Her beauty was peerless. Hundreds of men had said so among themselves. Such a face as hers would have made a fortune on the stage; therefore it was little wonder that she should be desired as wife by Prince Zertho dAuzac, the man who under the plain cognomen of Zertho dAuzac was once a fellow blackleg with her father, and now a wealthy personage by reason of his inheritance of the great family estates in Luxembourg. Well he knew what a sensation her beauty would create in Berlin or St Petersburg, and with the object of obtaining her he had travelled to England. Pure and good, full of high thoughts and refined feeling, Liane Brooker existed amid strangely incongruous surroundings. She had been reared in the worst atmosphere of vice and temptation to be found in the whole of Europe, yet had passed through unscathed and uncorrupted.
Her companion was fair, with bright pink-and-white complexion, rosy, delicate cheeks, and merry blue eyes. Nelly was scarcely as handsome perhaps as Liane, yet hers was an almost perfect type of English beauty. Her hands were not quite so small or refined as her friends, and in contrast with the latters carriage hers was not quite so graceful, nor was her figure so supple; yet the mass of fluffy blond curls that peeped beneath her hat, straying across her brow, gave softness to her features, and her delicate pointed chin added a decided piquancy to a face that was uncommonly pretty and winning.
Both girls, catching sight at the same moment of Zerthos heavy watch-chain at the window, muttered together in an undertone. That day the Prince had arrived unexpectedly to lunch, sat down to their meagre dish of cold mutton, as he had often done in the old days when funds had been low, and having indicated his desire to talk business alone with the Captain, they had gone out together to post a letter at the little grocery store at the opposite end of the village.
When they discovered him still there, both pulled wry faces. He had never been a favourite of either. Liane had always instinctively disliked this man, who was the scapegrace of a noble family. His cynical look and sly manner had caused her to distrust him, and it had been mainly on this account that her father had dissolved his partnership in the private gaming-house they had carried on during the previous winter in Nice, an institution remembered with regret by many a young man who had gone to the Riviera for health and pleasure, only to return ruined. Zertho was not entirely unconscious of Lianes antipathy towards him; he well knew that without her fathers aid his cause must be foredoomed to failure. But he never on any single occasion acted in undue haste. It was his proud boast that if ever he set his heart upon doing a thing he could quietly possess his soul in patience, for years if necessary, till the right moment arrived when he could execute his plans with success. Judging from the light, pleasant greeting he gave both girls as they entered, it was the tactics of craft and cunning he now intended to follow.
He chaffed Liane upon becoming a village belle, whereupon she, quick at repartee, tossed her handsome head, her heart beating fast, almost tumultuously, as she answered:
Better that than the old life, Msieur.
Oh, so you, too, have settled and become puritanical! he laughed. You English, you are always utterly incomprehensible. Have you yet joined the Anti-Gambling League?
We are very happy here, she replied, heedless of his taunt. I have no desire to return to the Continent, to that old life of feast one day and fast the next.
Nor I, chimed in Nellie, full of fun and vivacity. This place is sometimes horribly dull, its true; but we always get our dinner, which we didnt on many occasions when we were abroad. Look at our house! Surely this place, with its little English garden, is better than those dingy rooms on the third floor in the Rue Dalpozzo in Nice. Besides, the Captain never swears now.
Very soon hell become a teacher in the local Sunday School, I suppose, sneered Zertho.
I cannot understand your reason for coming here to jeer at our poverty, Liane exclaimed angrily, drawing herself up quickly. At least my father lives honestly.
I sincerely beg your pardon, and your fathers also, mademoiselle, answered the Prince, bowing stiffly in foreign manner. If my remarks have annoyed you Im sure I will at once withdraw them with a thousand apologies. I had no intention, I assure you, of causing one instants pain. I was merely joking. It all seems so droll.
I know you well enough, Zertho, not to be annoyed at anything you may say, the Captain interrupted, good-humouredly as always. However, speak what you have to say to me alone, not before the girls.
The ladies will, I know, forgive me if I promise not to again offend, the Prince said. His eager eyes scanned Liane with such intense anxiety that they seemed to burn in their sockets, yet mingled with this fiery admiration, there was a strange covered menace in their expression. Taking out his watch a second later he added, But Im late, I see. Ten minutes only to catch my train back to London, and I dont know the way. Wholl guide me to the station? You, Liane?
No, answered her father. Nelly shall go. I want Liane to deliver a message for me.