“But you could have them brought here,” suggested the irrepressible Miss Smith.
“Thank you, but we are going to have dinner as soon as the train starts.”
“Ah, we have dined already, but after this evening we might share a table. Why are you so little kind?” the girl’s voice followed Zoe pleadingly as she closed the discussion by turning away. She had an odd feeling of self-reproach, though she had only acted in the most prudent and proper way, and Maurice offered her no comfort. He could not bring himself to say that the unconventional invitation ought to have been accepted, but it was evident he thought she might have managed to decline it without hurting Miss Smith’s feelings. It was not until they were half-way through dinner that the sense of constraint produced by the incident wore off, and Zoe felt inclined to talk freely.
“I feel so delightfully thrilled!” she said, leaning back luxuriously. “My heart always leaps up when I see the words ‘Orient Express’—just as the sight of a cabin-trunk with a P. & O. label makes me think of the Black Hole and the Mutiny and all sorts of interesting things—and now to be actually on board! Have you found out yet which is the compartment always reserved for an emissary of the British Government?”
“Patience, patience!” entreated Maurice. “Give a man a little time.”
“Well, I have spotted the man—the emissary I mean,” said Zoe triumphantly. “He has J. G. W. on his bag, and he is a soldier and has been in India, and he has the most startlingly blue eyes I ever saw.”
“Now, why startling?” asked Maurice tolerantly.
“Why, with that brown face and fairly dark hair you expect dark eyes, and it gives you quite a shock when he looks up and you see how blue they are.”
“I expect the startling man with the blue eyes got a shock when he looked up and found you staring at him. I know the fellow you mean, but when you managed to find out the details of his personal history beats me.”
“Purely inference, my dear boy. Any one could see he was a soldier, and he has the Indian look about the eyebrows.”