He started for Italy that same evening, and three days later appeared in the garden of the Villa Rimini to find that Doris had consented to be Percy Levant’s wife.
There was something so complete in the success of his plans that Mr. Spenser Churchill was almost startled. The marquis lying bereft of reason and helpless away in England, and Doris Marlowe engaged to Percy Levant! It was little short of marvelous!
“Now, if I could only see them married,” he murmured, as he lay on the lawn smoking a cigarette, and blinking placidly up at the blue sky; “if I could only see them married, and the dear marquis would kindly remove himself from this troublous world, I should be ten thousand pounds richer in pocket, and be able to repay my dear Lord Cecil for the many, the very many snubs he has bestowed upon me. Ah, here comes Percy. How the young man hates me! And yet I have been the means of giving him a beautiful wife and a large fortune. Strange how deeply ingratitude is engrained in the human heart! Well, Percy,” he purred, “and how is dear Miss Marlowe now? It was nothing serious, I trust? Only the heat, my dear Percy? I noticed that the room was hot, and the air quite heavy with flowers. I’m not sure that too many flowers are wholesome; to some ultra-refined sensibilities, like those of our dear Miss Doris, for instance, their perfume is overwhelming. How is she?”
Percy Levant stood with folded arms looking thoughtfully into vacancy, his handsome face grave and sombre.
“Miss Marlowe has gone to her own room,” he said, in a low voice. “Yes, it may have been the heat and the scent of the flowers.” As he spoke, he took the society journal from his pocket and opened it. “What was it Lady Despard was reading when—when Miss Marlowe fainted, Churchill?” and he bent his dark eyes keenly upon the placid face.
Spenser Churchill touched his white, smooth forehead with his forefinger.
“Really, my dear Percy, I forget! Wasn’t it something about that floral fete to the Amalgamated Charity Children? Or was it the account of Lady Brabazon’s ball? Miss Marlowe’s sudden and alarming indisposition so startled me that it drove the matter out of my head.”
Percy Levant looked at him fixedly, then opened the paper and scanned it carefully; then his eyes flashed as he came across the paragraph respecting Lord Cecil’s engagement, and he read it aloud.
“That was it, was it not?”
“N—o, I don’t think so, but I really can’t be sure. To tell you the truth I wasn’t paying much attention. You see, I’d read the paper coming across.”