Her words were not lost to the periphery of the crowd. He drew back stoutly, but his heart sank when she added even more loudly: “Remember, you have one friend—even though all your brave companions fail!”
His lips moved with the words: “Dear Noreen—say no more.”
“Remember me!” came back to him.
For an instant she watched as he turned to the door—lineage to Plantagenet and stuff of angels warm in her heart. The other women fathomed his attempt to shield her from them and from her own impulsiveness. What they thought of his gallantry they did not tell; but what they thought of Noreen Cardinegh was revealed in jewelled combs and in the elaborate artistry of back-hair which met her eyes when she turned once more to the hall.
“Mighty brave of you, I’m sure, Miss Cardinegh,” said Bingley, stepping to her side. “I should like to have a friend so loyal. But you’re wrong this time, really——”
“Even so, Mr. Bingley, I shall trust to my own judgment,” she answered, moving swiftly into the throng, where he did not essay to follow.
Routledge had not missed the attitude of the Hall toward her. The tempest of abhorrence, though a new and very wonderful brand of battle, did not shatter his philosophy, but the slight which his champion was enduring for his sake—this was grim hell in his heart.
Outside he fought it, the roar of dripping London in his ears. A cab drove up to the reception-canopy, and her father, Jerry Cardinegh, stepped out—incredibly shrunken, altered, and uncertain of step. Far different had he left London for India less than a year before, a hard, weathered, full-blooded man. Routledge hungered now for his friend of friends, but he did not call.
In the Rubicon Buffet, across the Square, the Review’s cheque was handed him presently by a messenger. The outcast signed the receipt, and sat down dazedly, forgetting to drink. An hour later, Burling-Forster entered the buffet with some friends from the Armory. The artilleryman saw Routledge at a far table and backed out.
“We will go on,” said he. “I perceive that this is no place for us.”