“No, I tell you I have had enough of it. But if you wish to remain here, you need not feel obliged to escort me. The first person I meet will render me that service.”
“Ma cher!” said he, rising and shaking his head, as he concluded to give me his arm.
We began our voyage of discovery through the long row of salons, but could not find Lorenzo anywhere. Lando said nothing, but I noticed he cast a quick, mistrustful glance around every room we entered, and it occurred to me he had not told the truth, but merely wished to reassure me when he knew Lorenzo was having a tête-à-tête it was as humiliating for me to be ignorant of as to discover. Lando had touched a sorer spot than I was willing he should see. For in spite of an apparently very frank explanation on this point from Lorenzo himself a few days before, suspicion had entered my heart, and I was in constant need of being reassured. Was not this acknowledging I already had reason to tremble?
At length we arrived at the last salon. Lorenzo was not there. There was only a small room beyond, not as well lighted as the rest.
“That is the library,” explained Lando in his way; “or, at least, a cabinet full of books, where no one ever goes.”
An almost imperceptible movement of his arm made me feel he wished to prevent me from entering. This was enough to induce me to go straight to the door, where I stopped short, at once reassured and amazed. Four men were there by themselves, sitting around a card-table with a green covering. Two of them were playing, and Lorenzo was one of them; the others followed the game with the most intense interest. I remained leaning against the door, motionless, and my eyes fastened on him. [pg 748] Was that really Lorenzo?... What a change in his countenance!... What a strange expression in his mobile face! He did not perceive me, and I felt that my voice would have sounded in his ear in vain. He neither saw nor heard anything around him. His looks, his attention, his mind, and his whole being seemed absorbed in the cards he held in his hand. He was calm, but his slightly-compressed eyebrows showed that luck was against him.
In a few minutes he drew a roll of gold pieces from his pocket, and threw them on the table. His opponent rose, but Lorenzo remained in his seat, and began a new game with one of those who had been watching the old one.
“Take a seat here,” said Lando, leading me towards one of the sofas in the room where we were. “I am going to tell Lorenzo you are waiting for him. Do not go in yourself.”
I made a sign of assent, and for the first time gave Lando credit for some tact. His usually smiling face had, moreover, an air of anxious solicitude that not only surprised me, but redoubled the strange, unexpected shock I had just experienced. He went into the next room, and, after waiting a long time, I at last saw him come out; but he was alone.
“It is impossible to speak to him till the end of the game,” he said in a tone of vexation. Then, after a moment's silence, he added with a forced laugh: “My dear cousin, you would have done much better to follow my advice and wait for Lorenzo in the concert-room instead of coming here after him. But since you persisted in doing so, allow me to give you one bit of advice, now you have caught him falling into his old bad habit again.”