“I intend to,” he replied coolly. “Now—-and always.”
CHAPTER XXI—DIVERS HAPPENINGS
“I DON’T think I want any champagne,” said Claire smilingly, as Nick filled a glass and handed it to her. “Being utterly free like this produces much the same effect. I feel drunk, Nick—drunk with happiness. Oh, why can’t I be always free——”
She broke off abruptly in her speech, her face whitening, and stared past Nick with dilated eyes. Her lips remained parted, just as when she had ceased speaking, and the breath came between them unevenly.
Nick followed the direction of her glance. But he could see nothing to account for her suddenly stricken expression of dismay. A man in chauffeur’s livery, vaguely familiar to him, was approaching, and it was upon him that Claire’s eyes were fixed in a sick gaze of apprehension. It reminded Nick of the look of a wounded bird, incapable of flight, as it watches the approach of a hungry cat.
“What is it?” he asked quickly. “What’s the matter? For God’s sake don’t look like that, Claire!”
Slowly, with difficulty, she wrenched her eyes away from that sleek, conventional figure in the dark green livery.
“Don’t you see who it is?” she asked in a harsh, dry whisper.