"Good-night," I answered mechanically, for I was too much surprised by his words to think what I was saying. Then I entered the gondola and bade the man take me back to my hotel.
"Surely Nikola has taken leave of his senses," I said to myself as I was rowed along. "Gertrude Trevor was the very last person in the world that I should have expected Nikola to make such a statement about."
At this point, however, I remembered how curiously she had been affected by their first meeting, and my mind began to be troubled concerning her.
"Let us hope and pray that Nikola doesn't take it into his head to imagine himself in love with her," I continued to myself. "If he were to do so I scarcely know what the consequences would be."
Then, with a touch of the absurd, I wondered what her father, the eminently respected dean, would say to having Nikola for a son-in-law. By the time I had reached this point in my reverie the gondola had drawn up at the steps of the hotel.
My wife and Miss Trevor had gone to bed, but Glenbarth was sitting up for me.
"Well, you have paid him a long visit, in all conscience," he said a little reproachfully. Then he added, with what was intended to be a touch of sarcasm, "I hope you have spent a pleasant evening?"
"I am not quite so certain about that," I replied.
"Indeed. Then what have you discovered?"
"One thing of importance," I answered; "that Nikola grows more and more inscrutable every day."