It might seem less than eleven years to him. She tossed her hair back over her shoulders and rose from the dressing-table.
In the benign gaslight her bureau stood invitingly open.
"Yes, I will," she declared, and sitting down she wrote this note:
Woodworth Lodge,
Campden Hill, W.
May 3rd, 1891.
Dear Pierre,I was at your lecture to-night. If you remember who I am after eleven years and feel inclined to renew an old acquaintance, won't you come and have tea with us on Wednesday next any time after four? I should so much enjoy to hear more about your adventure.
Yours sincerely,
Mary Alison.
There was no answer by post, but on Wednesday afternoon when she was sitting in the drawing-room, counting over to herself the woolen spiders and butterflies crawling up and down her curtains, he came.
Once in the early days of marriage Mary had taken part with her husband in some amateur theatricals, in the course of which she had been attacked by stage fright and stood speechless on the stage for what seemed an age of agony before she regained her voice. It was the first time Jemmie was angry with her, and she had resolved never to act again. Now when Pierre was shown into the room she felt just as she felt then. Fortunately he was more at ease than she was, and under his guidance of the conversation Mary slowly recovered her self-possession.
All the time that Pierre was talking Mary became more and more conscious of him as a man. She had never regarded Jemmie except as an institution. These eyes that looked so eagerly into hers and at the same time beyond hers to remote shores and distant mountain-peaks made her heart beat faster, her breath come and go. Yet, he was only talking to her as he had talked to an audience the other night. There was nothing personal, still less intimate, in his words.
"I was very lucky to arrive in Madagascar just before we went to war with Queen Ranavalona—a very remarkable woman. So was her niece who succeeded her. I was also lucky to know English so well, because you English were always there behind the scenes with your officers in the Malagasy army; besides, there were always negotiations with your consular officials. We shall have war again in Madagascar soon."
"Again?" Mary echoed in alarm.