“So you would not come to see me, Mr. Herriard,” Gastineau said, with a sneer, as he turned abruptly, his keen eyes taking in all that was in the room. “It was, however, necessary that I should confer with you to-night—you know how I hate procrastination—so I have come to see you. I wonder what the business was that kept you here. The composition of a love-letter?”
The man’s contemptuous, malignant tone seemed to touch the utmost limits of a sneer. His quick glance had noticed the letter to himself, which lay half written on the desk.
“No,” Herriard answered quietly; “not a love-letter.”
“That’s well,” Gastineau returned, “for it is about this love affair of yours that I want to talk to you.”
“Holding as we do such different opinions of Countess Alexia, I would rather the subject were not mentioned between us,” Herriard replied. He felt that the crisis had come, and that it would not do for him to show weakness. He must face this man, and, after all, with the knowledge just gained, he was not defenceless.
“But,” objected Gastineau, in his quick, peremptory way, “it must be mentioned. You say we are at issue upon the subject. We are—more seriously than you suppose. And for that very reason we must come to an understanding, and without delay.”
He had taken his stand opposite Herriard on the farther side of the writing table, ignoring the chair which the other had pulled round for him.
“Very well, then,” Herriard responded simply.
Gastineau took out a cigarette and lighted it thoughtfully, with the air of a man considering how best he should frame what he had to say. Herriard sat and watched him in expectant silence.
“The case I have to put to you, my dear Herriard, is somewhat involved,” Gastineau began, in a tone whose lightness rather surprised his listener; “and I shall have to touch upon a subject or two which I would rather avoid. But, you see, when a man performs the feat of a veritable resurrection such as mine he is bound to find the line of his life tangled into certain awkward complications. That is inevitable; you will grant that?”