“Mrs. Gardner!” he exclaimed. “Elizabeth!”
The sound of his voice seemed to break the spell. A half-choked sob came through her teeth; the struggle for composure commenced.
“I am ill,” she murmured. “Give me my glass. Give it to me.”
Her fingers were feeling for it but it seemed as though she dared not move her head. He filled it with wine and placed the stem in her hand. Even then she spilled some of it upon the tablecloth. As she raised it to her lips, the man who stood still upon the threshold of the restaurant looked into her face. Slowly, as though his quest were over, he came down the room.
“Go away,” she said to Tavernake. “Go away, please. He is coming to speak to me. I want to be alone with him.”
Strangely enough, at that moment Tavernake saw nothing out of the common in her request. He rose at once, without any formal leave-taking, and made his way toward the other end of the cafe. As he turned the corner towards the smoking-room, he glanced once behind. The man had approached quite close to Elizabeth; he was standing before her table, they seemed to be exchanging greetings.
Tavernake went on into the smoking-room and threw himself into an easy-chair. He had been there perhaps for ten minutes when Pritchard entered. Certainly it was a night of surprises! Even Pritchard, cool, deliberate, slow in his movements and speech, seemed temporarily flurried. He came into the room walking quickly. As the door swung back, he turned round as though to assure himself that he was not being followed. He did not at first see Tavernake. He sat on the arm of an easy-chair, his hands in his pockets, his eternal cigar in the corner of his mouth, his eyes fixed upon the doors through which he had issued. Without a doubt, something had disturbed him. He had the look of a man who had received a blow, a surprise of some sort over which he was still ruminating. Then he glanced around the room and saw Tavernake.
“Hullo, young man!” he exclaimed. “So this is the way you follow my advice!”
“I never promised to follow it,” Tavernake reminded him.
Pritchard wheeled an easy-chair across the room and called to the waiter.