"Of course; but your compliments are often complicated, as the Marchesa says."
Diana smiled as she spoke. Batiscombe knew that she was repaying him for the remark he had made when she had unexpectedly appeared twenty minutes earlier.
"I can only repeat," he retorted, "that Madame de Charleroi has a good memory."
Leonora was puzzled. She saw well enough that Diana and Julius were, or had been, much more intimate than she had supposed. They understood each other at a glance, by a word, and they seemed on the verge of quarrelling politely over nothing. She devoutly wished that Diana would go away, instead of spoiling her afternoon. But Diana leaned back against the rock and crossed her feet and prepared to be comfortable. She was evidently not going. Batiscombe stood motionless, with the easy stolidity of a very strong man who does not wish to move, and Leonora could see his bold profile against the grey haze of the sky. There was a short silence after his last remark, during which Leonora felt uneasy: something was in the atmosphere that made her anxious, and she did not like the way Diana looked at Batiscombe, with an air of absolute superiority, as though she could do anything she pleased with him.
"How dreadfully solemn we are," said Leonora, rather awkwardly. Julius turned quickly with a laugh.
"Let us be gay," he said. "I hate solemnity, unless there is enough of it to make me laugh. I remember being at a ball once that produced that effect."
"Allons!" said Diana, "give us some of your reminiscences, Monsieur Batiscombe. They ought to be interesting."
"Not so much as you think. But the ball was very funny. It was in Guatemala, three years ago. I was invited to a huge thing by the president—an entirely new president, too, who had just cut the throats of the old president and of all his relations. I believe there was some sort of revolution at the time, and when it was over the victorious individual gave a ball. The refreshments were simple—brandy for the men and rosolio for the ladies; there was no compromise in the shape of a biscuit or a glass of water."
Leonora laughed, being willing to laugh at anything so as to encourage Julius to talk.
"En vérité, that was very amusing," remarked Diana coldly. Batiscombe took no notice.