The woman who looked as Louis did when he caught a mouse turned on the Canadian boy, who had followed Pippa with a far-away, dreamy stare.
"What's the matter, dearie?" she queried, with the tedious endearment of her class.
He brought himself from the reveries that had strangely blended the French girl's face with the faces of two other women across the sea; then he looked into his companion's with its leering comeliness. With a quick, decisive movement he rose to his feet, and, feeling for his pocket-book, placed a pound-note on the table.
"Pay for what we've had," he said, his jaw stiffening, but his voice shaking oddly.
"What! aren't I going to see you again?"
He was going to speak, but changed his mind, and, turning on his heel, strode from the place, his spurs jingling with each step … and there was something in his face that made people keep silent as he passed.
XI
It lacked two hours of midnight when an aeroplane crossed the Channel.
With his feet automatically guiding the rudder and his eyes keeping incessant watch on his compass and the pulsating lights of landing points showing like lighthouses at sea, the Black Cat brought all his conscious mind to bear on the events of the day.
In the whim of the moment, when the rain was on the roof, he had suggested this adventure to the little girl of the lonely mill-house; and for one day London had been hers. He had carried out his plan. Her countless comments, some childish, some strangely mature, were evidence enough of her enjoyment. Then why, he questioned, was he experiencing a dull feeling of depression, as the shadows beneath showed that once more they were over France? To-morrow he would have the zest of battle; again he would lead his squadron in the greatest sport of the ages…. Then why this heaviness of spirit?