“Oh, no. We are tame as a rule. I had just been lunching with him in the most civilised way.”
“Perhaps I intruded,” said Gerard.
“By no means. You came just in time, like the hero in a melodrama, to save maiden innocence from the clutches of the villain.”
“May I enjoy the hero’s privilege of consolation?”
“Within moderate limits,” she said. “I shall not be taking you from your friends?”
“Oh, no. I don’t expect my friend, Mrs. Delamere, who lives with me, till half-past four. Till then I am a waif. Shall we sit? Or, no. Let us find a place somewhere else.”
They walked together to the terrace below, and sat down facing the blue glory of the sea. On their way thither, she began to explain her presence in Monte Carlo. Nice had been her winter quarters for over three years. Her little villa was charming. If Mr. Merriam happened to be in Nice and would call at the Casa Benedetta, Mrs. Delamere and herself would be delighted to see him. Minna used her chaperon freely as a stalking horse of respectability.
“I shall be glad to come,” said Gerard, with an appreciative glance at his companion. “I only landed in Europe yesterday, after a long absence, so I haven’t found my bearings yet.”
“Where have you been?”
“Until lately in South Africa. Hunting and gold mining. Then I satisfied a schoolboy craze to see Madagascar. I don’t want to see it again. Was down with fever most of the time, and took the first Messageries steamer to Marseilles. Then I thought I would put in a week or two here, before facing the wretched English spring.”