“Yes,” he said, “I was there.”
Cipriani de Lloseta glanced at him sharply.
“I am glad of that,” he said. “It was very stupid of me. I ought to have telegraphed to him to hold his tongue.”
“But Miss Challoner could not have accepted the Val d’Erraha as a present?”
“Oh yes, she could, if she had not known. These little things are only a matter of sentiment.”
Fitz leant forward, looking into the Count’s face without attempting to conceal his surprise.
“Do you mean to say you would have given it to her?” he asked.
“No; I should have paid it to her in settlement of a debt which I owed to her father.”
The Count moved rather uneasily in his chair. His eyes fell before his companion’s steady gaze.
“Another matter of sentiment,” suggested Fitz.