Ned made a violent effort to control his passion. Convinced now, as he was, that he had been used the victim of a practical joke, he could not turn the situation effectively by adopting a tragic vein. Besides, he was conscious of an inexplicable little feeling of rebellious attraction towards this man—a sort of emotional deference such as that with which a despairing suitor courts the guardian of his inamorata. If the light of his hope had fallen very low, here was he that might, if he would, renew it—here was a possible friend at court that he could ill afford—until that moment of the certain quenching of the light—to quarrel with or insult. He did not put this to himself. It affected him, nevertheless.
“I will acknowledge I was hasty,” he said, in some miserable perplexity. “It is possible I have jumped to unjustified conclusions. I have been a disinterested courier, as monsieur suggests, faithful to the service to which I was induced—under false pretences, it appears. But I will take monsieur’s word as to his innocence of any participation in the jest that has led me dancing over half a continent in search of monsieur.”
He looked at Egalité half piteously. The latter, scenting the reaction, shrugged his shoulders, with a relieved expression.
“I am deeply sensible,” he said coolly, “of monsieur’s kindness. For the rest” (he tapped the paper in his hands) “the message that monsieur conveys to me is capable of only one construction.”
“That madame removes with her charge to London?”
“Certainly.”
“And that is all?”
“Precisely all, monsieur.”
Ned fell back a pace, and bowed frigidly. The duke, with a second shrug of his shoulders, took M. David’s arm and made as if to withdraw. Suddenly he jerked himself free and returned to the hapless young man, a much gentler look on his face.
“Ah, monsieur!” he said, in a low voice, “that is all—yes, that is all. But I can read between the lines. Am I to hold myself to blame that madame took her own way to rid herself of an embarrassment! I talk in the dark, with only my knowledge of women—of this woman, par excellence—to illuminate me. She coaxed you to a confidential mission? Well, there was no need—believe me, there was no need. We must read between the lines.”