Wishing to show what slight importance he attached to the encounter, he contrived to nudge Gunther as a signal that he was ready; but, his friend proving insensible, he was forced to proceed.
"Did you come with Mrs. Kildair?" he said perfunctorily.
"No."
"With whom?" he asked, regretting the question as soon as it was uttered.
"With Mr. Lorraine—of course," she said, looking down modestly, but beneath her eyelids he divined again the cunning malice.
At this moment, to his delight, Emma Fornez perceived him, and, being profoundly bored by her chance cavalier, a purely passive listener thoroughly bewildered by her sallies, gave a cry of joy:
"Teddy, traitor, where have you been?"
Dismissing her companion with a bob of her head, she seized Beecher's arm, exclaiming:
"Heavens—save me! I have been shrieking at a deaf-mute."
In the crowd, the head of her late companion could be seen, rolling his uncomprehending eyes. Beecher, overjoyed at the arrival, which gave him an advantage he was quick to perceive, nodded to Miss Charters and departed, exaggerating, for her benefit, the confidential intimacy which Mme. Fornez's attitude permitted.