"You've seen me here pretty often," I began.
He laved his hands more obsequiously than ever as he bowed assent.
"Well—there's a lady over there at that table. She is a friend of mine. I don't know the people with whom she is supping and, therefore, don't wish to disturb their party. Kindly take this note over to her. If you don't deliver it I shall be compelled to do so myself."
He took the note without a word.
For the first few moments while he was gone, I could not look in that direction. Now I suppose I know the madness which comes to those who love. It is madness. It is nothing less. In that short space I might have been another being, so overwhelming was the rush of emotions that trampled through me. In as many seconds I was prompted to the doing of a hundred different things; yet I sat there quietly, scarcely moving, until I raised my eyes and saw Clarissa with nervous fingers opening my note. The other woman was looking round in my direction with curious eyes, in which I could trace that half-puzzled look of recognition. But not once did Clarissa turn her eyes towards me. Even when she had finished reading it, she kept her face averted; then, giving some message to the head-waiter, she turned to the man on her right and began to speak as though it were in some hurried explanation. Again the woman stared at me. The man stared, too. Only Clarissa kept her face away. I saw her little fingers feverishly making countless pellets with her bread.
The next moment the maître d'hôtel was bending down with smooth apologies and speaking in my ear.
"The lady is very sorry, sir—but she is afraid there must be some mistake."
"What do you mean?" I asked quickly; but all the time I kept my eyes upon Clarissa. "What do you mean?" I repeated.
"The lady is very sorry, sir," he said again, "but she's afraid there must be some mistake."
A multitude of things came to my mind to be said, but not one of them passed my lips. With such precision as I thought could scarcely be in my nature, I took my note which he had brought back with him, tearing it slowly and evenly into a hundred little pieces, and laid them in a pile upon my table.