"Kiss my hand, sir, and have done with it! You are all avenged. At Torquay I had four companions in seven weeks."
"More power to them!" said Montresor. "Meredith, come here. Shall we accept the pleas?"
Meredith came slowly from the window, his hands behind his back.
"Lady Henry commands and we obey," he said, slowly. "But to-day begins a new world--founded in ruin, like the rest of them."
He raised his fine eyes, in which there was no laughter, rather a dreamy intensity. Lady Henry shrank.
"If you're thinking of Chudleigh," she said, uncertainly, "be glad for him. It was release. As for Henry Warkworth--"
"Ah, poor fellow!" said Montresor, perfunctorily. "Poor fellow!"
He had dropped Lady Henry's hand, but he now recaptured it, enclosing the thin, jewelled fingers in his own.
"Well, well, then it's peace, with all my heart." He stooped and lightly kissed the fingers. "And now, when do you expect our friend?"
"At any moment," said Lady Henry.