Their eyes met, and the Comtesse felt certain that her victim would return to her. She leaped from her chair the moment he left her and ran from the room.
“Una,” she cried. “Una, Maurice, where are you?”
She found them; they were packing clothes in a hand-bag—clothes, she supposed, for Neal.
“He’s gone to give orders to his men about you, Maurice. I know he has. I haven’t a moment to explain. Leave everything to me. I’ll manage him, only trust me and do what I say. Una, are you a born idiot? Take those things out of the bag. How can you go about with that travelling-bag in your hand and not excite suspicion? If you must have clothes wrap them in a bathing-sheet. Oh, what a fool you are!”
She left them no time to answer her, but fled back to the breakfast-room. A moment later Captain Twinely found her, lounging—a figure of luxurious laziness—among the cushions of Lord Dunseveric’s easy chair.
“We are going on the sea to-day,” she said, “my nephew, Maurice, has promised to take us in a boat to the Skerries. I have never been there, but I hear they are delightful. I hope you will come with us. Please say yes. I should feel so much safer in a boat if you were there. My nephew is very rash. He frightens me. I do not trust him. I shall not feel secure or easy in my mind unless you come, too. Besides”—her voice sank to a delicious whisper—“I shall not really enjoy myself unless you are there.”
She stretched her hand out and laid it with the tenderest motion of caress on his hand. Captain Twinely could not hesitate, he promised to go with her. In the back of his mind was a feeling that if he were of the party Maurice St. Clair could not attempt to communicate with the fugitive.
“Maurice,” said the Comtesse, “Maurice, are you ready? Captain Twinely is coming with us to the Skerries for a pic-nic. Won’t that be nice? Come along quickly, we are starting.”
She took the captain with her, and walked down to the cove where the boat lay. Una and Maurice, with their bundles of clothes, followed.
“Una,” said Maurice, “what does she mean? I can’t take this man in the boat, and I won’t. What does she mean by inviting him?”