“Not good-bye; you forget that I also will come to the marriage,” she said graciously, giving him her hand.
“We shall be honoured,” he murmured, as he bowed over the small gloved hand, with outward deference and inward aversion.
He disliked and distrusted his chief’s lovely young wife—why he did not know, for her manner towards him had always been charming. It was a purely instinctive feeling which, naturally, he had carefully concealed, and of which he was not a little ashamed; but there it was.
She was of foreign birth, but of what nationality no one seemed to know; a strikingly handsome young woman, whose marriage to the elderly financier had created a considerable sensation, for Sir Robert had long been considered a confirmed bachelor. Malicious tongues had predicted a speedy and scandalous dissolution of this union of May and December, but those predictions were as yet unfulfilled, for Lady Rawson’s conduct was irreproachable. She appeared as absolutely devoted to her husband as he was to her, and even the most inveterate and malignant gossip found no opportunity of assailing her fair fame. Yet, although immensely admired she was not popular. There was something of the sphinx about her—a serene but impenetrable mystery. Roger Carling was by no means the only person who felt that strong aversion from her.
He watched her now as, by her husband’s side, she recrossed the large room, moving with the languid, sinuous grace peculiar to her. She looked royally beautiful to-night, in a diaphanous robe of vivid green and gold tissue, an emerald tiara poised proudly on her splendid, simply dressed black hair, a magnificent emerald collar scintillating on her white neck.
She turned at the door and flashed a farewell smile at the young man, to which, as to Sir Robert’s genial nod, he responded with a bow.
“What is there about her that always makes me think of a snake?” he asked himself as, with a sigh of genuine relief, he reseated himself at the writing-table. “And Grace feels just the same, though she has always been jolly nice to her. I wish she wasn’t coming to-morrow, but of course it can’t be helped. Wonder what took her to that unlikely place yesterday, for I’ll swear it was she, though I’ve never seen her in that get-up before, but I’d know her walk anywhere. However, it’s none of my business where she goes or what she does.”
He addressed himself to his task again—an absorbing one, for the papers contained startling and most valuable information, which should be communicated to the Government with as little delay as possible. That was Sir Robert’s duty, of course.
He finished at last, folded and arranged the papers in order, with his translation and notes on top, tied them with red tape, stuffed them into a blue, canvas-lined official envelope printed with Sir Robert’s address, sealed the package—quite a bulky one—and bestowed it in a small safe in the wall, cunningly concealed behind one of the oak panels. Only he and his chief knew the secret of the panel or possessed keys of the safe.
“Thank goodness, that’s done,” he ejaculated, as he closed the panel, which slid noiselessly into place. “Ten o’clock, by Jove! Those fellows will think I’m never coming.”