“That I should not wish you to do,” she repeated in a half-embarrassed way.
“On my honour I promise,” he said slowly.
A strange feeling came over her. She had suddenly, in some indirect, allusive way, become interested in a man’s life. Yet she had done nothing, and in truth she cared nothing. They stood looking at each other, she slightly embarrassed, he hopeful and eager, when suddenly a step sounded without, a voice called “Guida!” and as Guida coloured and Detricand turned towards the door, Philip d’Avranche entered impetuously.
He stopped short on seeing Detricand. They knew each other slightly, and they bowed. Philip frowned. He saw that something had occurred between the two. Detricand on his part realised the significance of that familiar “Guida!” called from outside. He took up his cap.
“It is greeting and good-bye, I am just off for France,” he said.
Philip eyed him coldly, and not a little maliciously, for he knew Detricand’s reputation well, the signs of a hard life were thick on him, and he did not like to think of Guida being alone with him.
“France should offer a wide field for your talents just now,” he answered drily; “they seem wasted here.” Detricand’s eye flashed, but he answered coolly: “It wasn’t talent that brought me here, but a boy’s folly; it’s not talent that’s kept me from starving here, I’m afraid, but the ingenuity of the desperate.”
“Why stay here? The world was wide, and France but a step away. You would not have needed talents there. You would no doubt have been rewarded by the Court which sent you and Rullecour to ravage Jersey—”
“The proper order is Rullecour and me, monsieur.” Detricand seemed suddenly to have got back a manner to which he had been long a stranger. His temper became imperturbable, and this was not lost on Philip; his manner had a balanced serenity, while Philip himself had no such perfect control; which made him the more impatient. Presently Detricand added in a composed and nonchalant tone:
“I’ve no doubt there were those at Court who’d have clothed me in purple and fine linen, and given me wine and milk, but it was my whim to work in the galleys here, as it were.”