After glancing at the unhappy storekeeper, as he clumsily fishes for his “glass eye” in the ruby-coloured Dalwood, Miss Mundella turns towards Claude, and finds him regarding her curiously.
“Pardon me,” he says, as he observes that Lileth is for the instant somewhat disconcerted by the look she has seen in his face. “Pardon me; but we have surely met before. I am nearly certain of it. Will you kindly assist my ungallant memory? I confess I am puzzled to know how I could ever forget. It is hardly likely you will remember the circumstance of our meeting, when I——”
Claude suddenly ceases to speak. His features become set and firm, and slightly paler than before. Memory has come to his aid, and the bridge scene in Sydney is enacted over again in his mind’s eye. All but Angland and Miss Mundella are amusing themselves with Glory’s little dog Fluffy, which is begging for cheese rind.
Lileth leans forward and softly speaks,—
“Your thoughts seem unpleasant ones, Mr. Angland. I trust that the memory of any previous meeting, if we have met, is not associated with them.”
Claude again regards the grand face turned towards him observantly as he replies,—
“I thought I recognized your voice. But I made a foolish mistake. And to tell you the truth, the sound of your voice brought to my mind some very unpleasant recollections. I see I have aroused your interest. You will then pardon me if I explain under what circumstances it was that I last heard a voice so much resembling yours. I was assaulted in Sydney, a month or so ago, by two men who attempted my destruction. One of them, forgive my saying so, somewhat resembled you. But it was the tones of your voice, which are exactly like his, that at first puzzled me.”
“You are certainly not very complimentary, Mr. Angland,” responds Miss Mundella, smiling, without betraying in the least the agitation which almost renders her incapable of playing her part; “but I forgive you. And you must tell me, to-morrow, all about your adventure with my badly behaved ‘doppel-ganger’ in Sydney. Come, Glory!” she adds gaily to her cousin, as she rises to say “Good-night.”
“We shall have to be up early to-morrow, if we are to meet the Miss Chesters at the Red Billabong. Schlaf wohl!” And the two ladies retire, leaving the men to wind up the evening with their cigars.