CHAPTER III.
Pains and Penalties.
Sir Ralph Nicholson appeared the next day at Pearl's house in answer to a note he had found awaiting him on his return from dining at the Swedish Legation the evening before. Stanislas de Güldenfeldt and he were old and intimate friends, yet in spite of the fact that he was feeling bitterly mortified at Miss Mendovy's cool reception, not once did Amy's name cross his lips in the conversation kept up between the two men until the early hours of the morning.
De Güldenfeldt, on the contrary, spoke incessantly of Pearl, and Ralph wondered if his friend had the vaguest idea how much he betrayed himself in every word he let fall. He gazed at him with amazement. Here was a man who had been known throughout his career as the most cautious, the most guarded, and the most reticent of diplomatists, proving by every remark that passed his lips, in the very expression of his flushed and handsome face, the thoughts that were evidently entirely monopolising his mind. For the time being the two men seemed to have changed personalities, and the more de Güldenfeldt spoke of Pearl, the more silent and reserved did Nicholson become. He watched him with half-closed eyes through his cigar smoke, and with a cynicism he had somewhat adopted of late, found himself pitying what he chose to designate as his friend's "state of demoralisation."
"Poor old fellow," he thought, "Japan is spoiling him. Three years ago one would never have heard him maudling about a woman in this ridiculous way. Good Heavens! what confounded fools these women make of us!"
To Mrs. Nugent the following day he gave expression to almost the same sentiment, though on that occasion it was entirely in reference to himself. To her he was as frank and open as he had been reticent to de Güldenfeldt. Little by little the whole story came out. How it was not the charm of the scenery of Japan, not its people so clever, brave and fascinating, not its engrossing art, much as he appreciated beautiful things, in fact none of these attractions that had recalled him to the country after a few months absence, but simply the recollection of one little rebellious curl on Amy Mendovy's white forehead, the distinct and haunting impression of a seductively mocking expression in the bright eyes that had induced him to cast all home duties and pleasures to the winds, and had once more dragged him back to her side.
"And you see, Mrs. Nugent, how I have been rewarded for my constancy. But then men are such confounded fools! She refused me eighteen months ago, you know. Nevertheless I always had a faint hope that au fond she was not so entirely indifferent to me, which proves what a conceited, fatuous ass I am. Perhaps it is only fair that I should be punished for my folly."
"And are you so very positive that she does not care for you?" asked Pearl, looking up into his face with a smile.