He spoke lightly, but it was easy to see that the meeting was a very embarrassing one for both of them.
“I have not been in England long,” was the quiet reply. “Lady Langerdale, I am glad to see, is well.”
“She is fairly well. How strange that we should meet here! Why, it must be twenty years since I have seen you.”
“I have spent but little time in England.”
“I suppose not,” Lord Langerdale answered slowly. “We have heard of you occasionally. Will you come and speak to my wife?”
“I think not,” was the calm reply. “It could only be very painful for both of us. If Lady Langerdale desires it—not unless—I will call upon you at your rooms. But, frankly, I would rather not.”
Lord Langerdale appeared by no means offended, rather a little relieved, and answered sadly:
“It is for you to choose. If you can tell her that the past has lost some of its bitterness for you, and—and——”
He hesitated and seemed at a loss how to express himself. My vis-à-vis smiled—a smile of peculiar bitterness it was—and interrupted cynically:
“And that I am a reformed character, I suppose you would say, and have become a respectable member of society! No, no, Lord Langerdale, I am no hypocrite, and I shall never tell her that. A wanderer upon the face of the earth I have been during the best years of my life, and a wanderer I shall always be—adventurer, some people have said. Well, well, let it be so; what matter?”