“No great likelihood of that,” he returned. “They are no, more keen than you are for an encounter. I wish you would let me take you there to-morrow. We could start after lunch. It’s the coolest spot in which to spend a hot afternoon. But you mustn’t play tennis beforehand: it’s quite a good stretch. Will you come?”
Looking up to answer in the affirmative, she became aware as they approached the stoep of the presence in his customary seat near the entrance of the man who excited her curiosity and her sympathy in equal degrees.
“Who is that?” she asked her companion.
He glanced towards the object of her inquiry; and instantly on perceiving the expression in his eyes she regretted having asked the question.
“That! Oh! that’s Hallam—an awful rotter. Drinks like a fish. I’ve not seen him drunk, but I believe he never goes to bed sober.”
“I wish you hadn’t told me that,” she said in a voice that was blank with disappointment.
He stared at her in surprise and changed colour slightly as a man might do who is conscious of being rebuked.
“Perhaps I should have left you to discover it for yourself,” he replied. “But it’s common knowledge. He doesn’t trouble to conceal the weakness. The odd part of it is I have never seen him drink anything stronger than milk and soda. But the thing is obvious enough. He soaks. I don’t suppose there are two people in the hotel with whom he troubles to exchange a remark.”
This speech let in a big ray of light upon her understanding. It became abruptly as clear as the daylight why this man shrunk from intercourse with every one, why he had seemed to shun her society, to almost resent her attempts to converse. She wondered whether her new acquaintance, whose name was Sinclair, had noticed the incident at the breakfast-table and deliberately offered this information with the purpose of putting her on her guard. If this were the case she determined to show him that she did not need advice.
She walked on in silence, and stepped on to the stoep alone, and paused beside the chair of the man whom they had been discussing and smiled down at him. He gazed back at her, surprise and uncertainty struggling in his look.