“I was so afraid that I should miss you!” he exclaimed, taking very little notice of Lily’s companions. “Are you ready, Lily? I’ve got the car outside. We ought to start pretty soon, as I have to get back to the Hidalgo by five o’clock.”
“You will do that very easily,” interposed M. Popeau. “It’s only a quarter past four now.”
Stuart felt annoyed that the Frenchman seemed to take it for granted that Lily would go off with this dandified-looking foreigner.
“I propose taking Miss Fairfield for a short drive first.” There was a touch of haughty decision in the young Count’s voice. It was not that he resented M. Popeau’s apparent friendship with Lily, but already he reciprocated Angus Stuart’s sudden, unreasoning dislike. He pretended not to know that the Scotsman belonged to the little party.
“Beppo,” said Lily, rather awkwardly, “this is Captain Stuart. Captain Stuart, may I introduce my cousin, Count Beppo Polda?”
The two men looked at one another with a long, measuring glance, then they shook hands frigidly.
As they were making their way to the door, Lily fell behind for a moment by Angus Stuart’s side. “Perhaps I shall find your letter at La Solitude,” she whispered. She added: “I hope I shall.”
His thin, keen face lit up. “D’you really mean that, Miss Fairfield?”
“Of course I do!”
She shook hands with him and with M. Popeau; and a few moments later the car was going at a good pace past the Casino, in the opposite direction to that which would have taken them up to La Solitude.