“I am not sure, Lady Blakeney,” he replied evasively. “I may have to leave London to-morrow.”
“I would not do that, if I were you,” she said earnestly; then seeing the anxious look once more reappearing in his eyes, she added gaily; “No one can throw a ball better than you can, Sir Andrew, we should so miss you on the bowling-green.”
He had led her across the room, to one beyond, where already His Royal Highness was waiting for the beautiful Lady Blakeney.
“Madame, supper awaits us,” said the Prince, offering his arm to Marguerite, “and I am full of hope. The goddess Fortune has frowned so persistently on me at hazard, that I look with confidence for the smiles of the goddess of Beauty.”
“Your Highness has been unfortunate at the card tables?” asked Marguerite, as she took the Prince’s arm.
“Aye! most unfortunate. Blakeney, not content with being the richest among my father’s subjects, has also the most outrageous luck. By the way, where is that inimitable wit? I vow, Madam, that this life would be but a dreary desert without your smiles and his sallies.”
CHAPTER XIV.
ONE O’CLOCK PRECISELY!
Supper had been extremely gay. All those present declared that never had Lady Blakeney been more adorable, nor that “demmed idiot” Sir Percy more amusing.
His Royal Highness had laughed until the tears streamed down his cheeks at Blakeney’s foolish yet funny repartees. His doggerel verse, “We seek him here, we seek him there,” etc., was sung to the tune of “Ho! Merry Britons!” and to the accompaniment of glasses knocked loudly against the table. Lord Grenville, moreover, had a most perfect cook—some wags asserted that he was a scion of the old French noblesse, who, having lost his fortune, had come to seek it in the cuisine of the Foreign Office.
Marguerite Blakeney was in her most brilliant mood, and surely not a soul in that crowded supper-room had even an inkling of the terrible struggle which was raging within her heart.