“I don't know why, but I have an impression that I have had the pleasure of meeting you once before, count. Your face seems familiar, although your name was until to-night unknown to me.”
“I fear that you must be mistaken, colonel,” quietly rejoined Frederick, taking out his match-box to light a cigarette. “I am quite sure that I have never had the honor of an introduction to you before—a circumstance which I certainly could not have forgotten had it taken place,” added he, with a bow.
Thereupon the two men shook hands cordially, and Frederick made his way back to his hotel, leaving Colonel Clery to hail a passing hansom and to drive home.
As the cab rattled up Piccadilly toward St. James, the colonel thoughtfully twirled his mustache as he muttered to himself:
“Dashed if I can make it out! Where on earth did I meet that French fellow before? It seems to me as if he were connected with some disagreeable incident of my past life, but I will be blessed if I can remember when or how. I must try to find it out, however. The Kingsburys are making such a friend of him; and I am afraid that little Pearl is fast losing her heart to him. I must have a talk with Alice about the matter, and ask her where Arthur picked him up.”
On the following day, meeting Lord Arthur in the Row, Colonel Clery questioned him about Frederick.
“Oh, Vaugelade is a capital fellow!” exclaimed the young lord. “Tommy Harcourt and I traveled with him all over America. Lots of money, you know; good form and all that. The girls at Ottawa and New York were all crazy about him. We thought we should never be able to get him away. Awfully good fellow, and the most agreeable traveling companion I have ever met!”
“Well, but, my dear boy, do you know anything more definite about him? You see, one can never know too much about these blasted foreigners. Wasn't it somewhat imprudent to introduce him to your mother and sisters? I am afraid that Pearl is becoming rather infatuated with him.”
“Oh, hang it, Clery, you croak like an old parson. Pearl is a desperate flirt, and is always going it with some fellow or other. What would be the harm anyhow? I don't think the pater would object very much. Vaugelade has fortune, birth, position, good looks, talents.”