On his way to the door, Guest’s eyes caught the signal of a warning fan, and he looked up to see one of the boxes occupied by a party of his own friends. He had been too much occupied with Cornelia to look around the audience, but now it was impossible to leave the theatre without going upstairs a few minutes. After the ordinary greetings, complaints of the heat, and comparisons of engagements, followed the inevitable question—
“Who is Miss Rossetti?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Your friend in the stalls. The girl with the wonderful hair?”
“She’s an American—a Miss Briskett. Over from the States on a short visit. I met her lately down in the country, and we happened to strike the same week for a visit to town.”
“Lucky for you! I’ve been admiring her all night. That hair and skin, and the glittering black-green frock! Quite bewitching! Where is she staying?”
“At the Ritz, with some people she met coming over. She knows no one over here.”
The good lady’s interest appeased, she turned back to the stage, fluttering her fan to and fro. Attracted by its movement, or by the glances focussed upon her, Cornelia tilted her head upwards, recognised Guest, and whispered to her companion. Mr Moffatt’s eyes travelled obediently towards the box, to fasten, not on Guest but on the man by his side. For a moment they widened in unmistakable recognition, before, of set purpose, as it were, they grew blank and lifeless. He bowed slightly to Guest, and turned back to the stage.
The man by Guest’s side laughed drily, and followed him out into the corridor.
“Look here, Guest,” he said shortly, “if that girl is a friend of yours, and is staying in a hotel here with those people, you’d better advise her to get away as soon as possible! That man’s a bad egg. I ran up against him in Marienbad last year. He and his wife made the hotel too hot to hold them, and were politely requested to leave. There was nothing definite proved, but too many shady things to be pleasant. He had an extraordinary facility for winning at cards, and the fair Mrs Schuter—by the way her hair was brown at that time—”