“Do you know, Gladys, I had a queer feeling just now—as if Mr. Romaine were really ill, and might die at any time? And all the time we have looked upon him as a hypochondriac.”
“Reggie says if anybody really expected Mr. Romaine to die he would live forever. But I have not heard him say he was ill, and I am sure Reggie does not suspect it. And, Ethel dear, I shouldn’t be surprised if, after all, that house at Prince’s Gate should be yours.”
“I should be,” answered Ethel, “but if it ever is, I promise to be kind to the old gentleman.”
Bridge had met “the old gentleman” just outside the door, and had gone with him to the library, where he sat within easy call. Mr. Romaine, seated at his table, after a while seemed to recover from his paroxysm of pain. He unlocked a drawer and took out his will, which he read over, smiling all the time—he seemed to regard it as a very facetious document. Then he added something to it. He had a few valuable diamonds which he had collected for no particular purpose some years before, and he thought that Ethel Maywood might as well have them. And then he wrote his offer to Madame de Fonblanque, and sealed and addressed it. It seemed to give him such acute pleasure that he almost forgot his pain. He smiled, his black eyes sparkled, he smoothed his mustache coquettishly, and thought to himself:
“Checkmated, by Jove!”
It was then near twelve o’clock, and he rang for Bridge and went to his bed-room.
The man undressed him and put him to bed, and then Mr. Romaine said casually:
“You had better sit in this room to-night.”
Even with this servant, who knew the whole secret of his ailments, Mr. Romaine maintained a systematic kind of deceit which did not deceive.
Bridge stirred the fire into a ruddy blaze, and sat down by it to doze. Occasionally he rose and went toward the luxurious bed, where Mr. Romaine lay with wide-open, staring eyes, and every few moments he wanted something done for him. This alarmed Bridge, but he dared not show his uneasiness. At last, about two o’clock in the morning, when he had given up all attempts at dozing, he heard a sound which made him jump. It was a slight groan.