"Ah!" Naniescu concluded with perfect affability, "then I don't think I need detain you any longer, my dear young friend. May I express the wish that you will spend long and happy years in this beautiful country."
"Thank you."
Peter did not shake hands with either of the two men, but he caught Kervoisin's glance and gave him a pleasant nod. To Naniescu he said just before leaving:
"I suppose you have realised that Lady Tarkington will probably wish to start for England immediately."
"Yes, my dear young friend," Naniescu replied blandly. "I have realised that, and I have taken measures accordingly. But how kind of you to remind me!"
And when Peter finally went out of the room the general, breathless, perspiring, nerve-racked, threw himself into a chair and exclaimed:
"Il n'y a pas à dire! They are astonishing, these English!"
He poured himself out a glass of fine and drank it down at one gulp.
"Did you ever see such an unmitigated young blackguard?" he exclaimed.
But de Kervoisin had remained thoughtful. His shrewd, pale eyes were fixed upon the door through which Peter had just disappeared. Naniescu had taken his handkerchief and was mopping his streaming forehead and his neck round the edge of his collar.