'To-night?'
'At eight-twenty,' replied Trist, meeting his gaze with gentle impatience.
'Ah! Lady Pearer was asking me the other day if you were there, or on the way to the seat of war.'
'Lady Pearer? Don't know her,' observed Trist, with his mouth full of bread.
'She seemed to know you.'
The suggestion of a smile flickered across Trist's face, but his entire attention was absorbed just then by a bony piece of turbot. He made no answer, and silently shelved the subject in a manner which was not strictly complimentary to Mr. Hicks' fair and aristocratic friend.
The artist was one of those exceedingly pleasant persons who can never quite realize that their presence and conversation might, without serious inconvenience, be dispensed with. The mere fact of being seen in friendly intercourse with a person of his social distinction was, in his own simple heart, worthy of the consideration of greater men than Theodore Trist. In recounting the fact later, of his having dined with the celebrated war-correspondent on the eve of his departure for Bulgaria, he took exceeding great care to omit the mention of certain details. Moreover, he allowed it to be understood that the farewell feast was organized by Trist, and that there was some subtle political meaning in the hurried interview thus obtained.
'Trist,' he said, with a suggestion of melancholy, to Lady Pearer and other of his friends, 'is a strange fellow. He has a peculiar repelling manner, which causes people to imagine that he is indifferent to them. Now, when I dined with him at the "Press" the other night,' etc., etc.
Trist continued his dinner with that tranquillity of demeanour which marked his movements upon all occasions, but more especially, perhaps, when he was displeased or very much on the alert. The silence which followed the collapse of the Lady Pearer incident did not appear in the least irksome to him, whatever it may have been to his companion.
Hicks toyed with the rind of his late cheese, and wondered whether the novel bow of his voluminous dress-tie was straight.