“Now I must be off,” he said awkwardly. “I have an appointment—important business. Good night, everybody.”
He turned away and hurried from the room. Rita flushed slightly and exchanged a glance with Sir Lucien. Mrs. Sin, who had been watching the three intently, did not fail to perceive this glance. Mollie Gretna characteristically said a silly thing.
“Oh!” she cried. “I wonder whatever is the matter with him! He looks as though he had gone mad!”
“It is perhaps his heart,” said Mrs. Sin harshly, and she raised her bold dark eyes to Sir Lucien’s face.
“Oh, please don’t talk about hearts,” cried Rita, willfully misunderstanding. “Monte has a weak heart, and it frightens me.”
“So?” murmured Mrs. Sin. “Poor fellow.”
“I think a weak heart is most romantic,” declared Mollie Gretna.
But Gray’s behavior had cast a shadow upon the party which even Mollie’s empty light-hearted chatter was powerless to dispel, and when, shortly after midnight, Sir Lucien drove Rita home to Prince’s Gate, they were very silent throughout the journey. Just before the car reached the house:
“Where does Mrs. Sin live?” asked Rita, although it was not of Mrs. Sin that she had been thinking.
“In Limehouse, I believe,” replied Sir Lucien; “at The House. But I fancy she has rooms somewhere in town also.”