"
"As a matter of curiosity," Naida enquired, "when do you expect to see
her again?"
"This afternoon, I hope," he replied,--"directly I leave here, in fact."
"Then you will give her a little message for me, please?"
"With great pleasure!"
"Tell her from me--mind she understands this, if you please--that she
is not to leave England again until we have met."
"Is this a warning?" he asked.
She looked at him searchingly.
"I wonder," she reflected, "how much of you is Lord Dorminster's
nephew."
"And I, in my turn," he rejoined, with sudden boldness, "wonder how much
of you is Matinsky's envoy."
She began to laugh softly.
"We shall perhaps be friends, Lord Dorminster," she said. "I should like
to see more of you."
"You will permit me to call upon you," he begged eagerly.
"Will you come? We are at the Milan Court for a little time. My father
is trying to get a house. My sister is coming over to look after him. I
am unfortunately only a bird of passage."
"Then I shall not run the risk of missing you," he declared. "I shall
call very soon."
Immelan intervened,--grim, suspicious, a little disturbed. For some
reason or other, the meeting between these two young people seemed to
have made him uneasy.
"Your father has desired me to present his excuses to Lord Dorminster,"
he announced, "and to escort you back to the Milan. He has been
telephoned for from the Consulate."
Naida rose to her feet with some apparent reluctance.
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