"And for me, you do this?" she asked, looking up wistfully in his face.
He took her two little hands in his, and bending over, kissed the tips of their fingers.
"I cannot express the gratitude," she began.
"Don't," he said, cutting short her profuse thanks. "It's nothing, I assure you. Here is my card to Sanks. Better go to him at once, or you may miss him. It's nearly three o'clock." And feeling that it was unsafe to trust himself longer in her presence, he touched the bell, saying to the confidential clerk who answered it: —
"The door, John."
A moment later she was gone, leaving only the subtle perfume of her presence in the room. Stanley threw himself moodily into the nearest chair. It was too bad that this bewitching woman should be married to a brute. It was too bad that he couldn't do more to help her, and it was – yes, it really was too bad, that she should have come again into his life just at the present moment. She was so exactly like what he had fancied the ideal woman he was to marry ought to be. But she wasn't a bit like Belle, and the reflection was decidedly disturbing. And now, he supposed, she would get a divorce, and – oh, pshaw! it wasn't his affair anyway, and he was late for his appointment with Kent-Lauriston.
He rang his office bell sharply, picking up his hat and gloves as he did so, and saying to the messenger who answered his summons: —
"Give this report to his Excellency, John, and let me have some visiting cards, will you – No, no, not any official ones. Some with my private address on."
"Very sorry Sir, but they're all out. I ordered some more day before yesterday, Sir. They should have come by now."
"Just my luck, why didn't you attend to them earlier?"
"Isn't there one on your desk, Sir. I'm sure I saw one lying there this morning."
"Why, yes, so there was." And he turned hastily back, only to exclaim after a moment's hopeless rummaging: —
"Confound it! I must have given it to Señora De Costa!"
CHAPTER V
A GENTLEMAN IN DISTRESS
Kent-Lauriston was prompt to his appointment, and it took but a few moments to establish the Secretary and himself in a private room with a plentiful supply of cigarettes, and two whiskeys and sodas.
Stanley was nervous and showed it. Kent-Lauriston adjusted his monocle, tugged at his long sandy moustache, and surveyed his companion from head to foot.
"Not feeling fit?" he queried. "Suffering from political ennui?"
"Oh, my health is all right, as far as that goes – "
"Yes, I see," this last remark meditatively. Then he added. "Some deuced little scrape?"
Stanley nodded.
"Woman?"
"It concerns a lady – perhaps two."
Kent-Lauriston frowned, and tugged his moustache a trifle harder, to imply that he now understood the affair to be of a more complex order, requiring the aid of skilful diplomacy, in place of the simple directness of five-pound notes.
"Want my advice, I suppose?"
"Yes," admitted Stanley, "and so I'd better make a clean breast of the matter."
"Decidedly."
"The fact is, I want to marry – or rather, don't want to marry – no, that's not it either – I want to marry the girl bad enough, but I think I'd better not. It would be what the world – what you might call, a foolish match."
"Deucedly hard hit, I suppose?"
"You see," continued the Secretary, ignoring his friend's question, "I know I oughtn't to marry her, but left to myself, I'd do it, and I need a jolly good rowing – only you mustn't be disrespectful to the lady – I – I couldn't stand that."
"I think I know her name."
"Miss Fitzgerald. You dined with her at the Hyde Park Club last evening."
"Daughter of old Fitzgerald of the – th Hussars – "
"I – I believe that was her father's regiment, but now she lives – "
"Lives!" interjected Kent-Lauriston. "No, she doesn't live – visits round with her relatives – old Irish ancestry – ruined castles and no rents – washy blue eyes and hair, at present, golden."
"She is one of the most beautiful Irish girls I've ever seen," cried Stanley. "In repose her face is spirituelle. She is a cousin of Lord Westmoorland."
"Fourteenth cousin – twice removed."
"I don't know her degree of relationship."
"I do."
"She's splendid vitality and courage," said the Secretary, desirous of turning the conversation, which threatened to drift into dangerous channels. "She's dashing, thoroughly dashing."
"Gad, I'm with you there! I've seldom seen a better horse-woman. I've watched her more than once in the hunting field put her gee at hedges and ditches that many a Master of Hounds would have fought shy of, – and clear 'em, too."
Stanley smiled, delighted to hear a word of commendation from a quarter where he least expected it, but Kent-Lauriston's next remark was less gratifying.
"Little rapid, isn't she? Trifle fond of fizz-water and cigarettes?"
"She's the spirits of youth," said the Secretary, a trifle coldly.
"Let me see," mused his adviser. "How about that Hunt Ball at Leamington?"
"I wasn't there, and I must ask you to remember that you're talking of a lady."
"Um, pity!" said his friend ambiguously, and added, "How far have you put your foot in it?"
"Well, I haven't asked her to marry me."
"Ah. Order me another whiskey and soda, please," and Kent-Lauriston sat puffing a cigarette, and tugging at his moustache till the beverage came. Then he drank it thoughtfully, not saying a word; a silence that was full of meaning to Stanley, who flushed and began to fidget uneasily about the room.
Having finished the last drop, and disposed of his cigarette, his adviser looked up and said shortly: —
"How did this begin?"
"I met her some months ago – but only got to know her intimately at the races."
"Derby?"
"No, Ascot."
"Royal Enclosure, of course."
"Royal Enclosure, of course. She was visiting her aunt."
"I know. That type of girl has dozens of aunts."
"Her uncle brought her down and introduced us. He left her a moment to go to the Paddock and never came back."
"Um, left you to do the honours."
"Exactly so, and I did them. Saw the crowd, saw the gees, had lunch – you know the programme."
"Only too well. Do any betting?"
"A little."
"Thought it was against your principles. You told me so once."
"I – I didn't bet – that is – "
"Oh, I see. She did."
"Rather – a good round sum."
"You knew the amount?"
"Well, the fact is – she'd given her uncle her pocket-book, and he got lost."
"Clever uncle; so you paid the reckoning."
"She said she knew the winning horse."
"We always do know the winners."
"This was an exception to prove the