“Come here, Jean!” he said, drawing Salvières into the billiard-room, which was entirely unoccupied at the moment, and both men seated themselves upon a broad, mellow divan far away from the central hanging-lamps.
“I don’t wish,” Basil said at once, “simply to know how you like Laurence’s looks—that is not necessary. I am anxious—very anxious to hear what else you have to say about her. Between you and me there has always existed a sympathy and a comprehension greater than ordinary camaraderie, and that is why I don’t scruple to question you as I do. What do you think of Laurence, and what do you think Tatiana will think of her—which,” he concluded, “makes many ‘thinks’ in one request.”
“Plain speaking and clear understanding. An exchange without robbery! Eh?”
“Exactly!”
“Humm ... m! I wonder if in this all-blessed corner I could venture to light my pipe?” And Salvières peeped cautiously round the open panel of the door. “There’s nobody about, as far as I can see,” he laughed, “and you know that I do not consider digestion perfect without a few whiffs of my trusty briar.” He was watching Basil covertly as he spoke, and was somewhat relieved to see the strained expression of his eyes relax a little.
“I know. You’re lucky that Tatiana does not object to such a pernicious habit,” he interposed; “but there is nothing to ‘oxidize’ here, fortunately.”
“Your sister,” the Duke averred, “is too fine a woman to object to anything I fancy. She’s true blue, like all the Palitzins. But what’s that you were saying about oxidizing?”
“Nothing! Nothing! I was thinking of something else,” Basil hastily rejoined, repressing his untimely flash of memory, as he continually repressed similar ones. “Light your pipe first, and answer my question as soon as you have satisfied your brutal instincts,” he concluded, with a praiseworthy effort at banter.
“Your question? Oh! Yes, of course!” dallied Salvières. “Well, it is not possible for me to give you a very complete opinion after ten minutes’ conversation with a lovely woman, my dear Basil. It is too large an order for yours truly.”
He gave a wave of the hand descriptive of intricate complexities ad infinitum, and, deliberately leaning back on the luxurious cushions of the divan, began to puff at his trusty briar.