She knew that this taunt would hurt him. Besides, she liked to throw it at the memory of a woman whom she had hated--Cipriani de Lloseta’s dead wife.
“I should like to be of your party to-night,” he said quietly.
She gave another scornful laugh, with that ring of malice in it which thrills in the voice of some elderly women when they speak of young girls.
“Eve is to be of our party to-night,” she said. “Ah--that would be too absurd--a new Adam! You! But, mind you, Agatha will be here too. You will have to be careful how you play your cards, Don Juan! However, we dine at eight, and I shall be glad to see you.”
De Lloseta took up his hat and stick. With Mrs. Harrington, and with no one else perhaps in London, he still observed the stiff Spanish manner. He bowed without offering to shake hands, and left her.
Mrs. Harrington--cold, calculating, essentially worldly--looked at the closed door with deep speculation in her eyes. They were hard eyes, such as are only to be seen in a woman’s face; for an old man has usually picked up a little charity somewhere on the road through life.
Then she looked at a hundred-pound note which he had tossed across the table to her with a silent Catalonian contempt earlier in the proceedings.
“I thought he was rather easy to manage,” she said, examining the note. “I thought he wanted something. He has paid this--for his dinner.”
The Count moreover appeared to consider the entertainment cheap at the price, if his manner was to be relied upon. For he entered the drawing-room at eight o’clock the same evening with an unusually pleasant air of anticipatory enjoyment. He shook hands quite gaily with Mrs. Ingham-Baker, who bridled stoutly, and thought that he was a very distinguished-looking man despite his dark airs. He received Agatha’s careless nod and shake of the hand with a murmured politeness; with Eve he shook hands in silence. Then he turned rather suddenly upon Fitz and held out his hand gravely.
“I congratulate you,” he said. “When I last had the pleasure of seeing you, I did not suspect that I was entertaining a great man unawares--you were too humble.”