I stepped back quickly, while he, with eyes fixed upon that fair-haired woman, who seemed the centre of a miniature court, failed to notice me. Upon his face was a dark, anxious look, an expression such as I had never before seen upon his countenance. Perhaps he was jealous of the attention shown by that dozen or so of men who were chatting and laughing with her.
Her appearance was scarcely that of the keeper of an illicit gaming-house. One would have expected to find some fine, dashing, handsome woman, in a striking gown, and with a profuse display of jewellery. On the contrary, she was quietly dressed in a pretty, graceful gown of dove-grey cashmere, the bodice cut low and trimmed with passementerie, a frock which certainly well became her rather tame style of beauty. The only ornament was a small half-moon of diamonds in her hair.
Ernest appeared to take in the situation at a glance, and with his back turned to her stood watching the baccarat, just as I had feigned to watch it. Through the great mirror before him, however, he could note all her actions. She was laughing immoderately at some remark made by one of her companions, and I noticed how Ernest's face went pale with suppressed anger. How haggard, how thin, how blanched, nervous, and ill he looked! Usually so smart in attire, his dress clothes seemed to hang upon him, his cravat was carelessly tied, and in place of the diamond solitaire I had bought at Tiffany's for him in the early days of our acquaintance—which he had worn when we met at Monte Carlo—there was only a plain pearl stud, worth perhaps ten centimes. Alas! he had sadly changed. His was, indeed, the figure of a man haunted by the ever-present shadow of his crime.
It was curious, I thought, that he did not approach her; but the reason for this became plain ere long. I had returned to the adjoining room, and was again watching the roulette, when suddenly she brushed past me on her way out into the corridor, into which several other rooms opened. Suddenly I heard his well-known voice utter her name in a hoarse whisper.
"Julie!"
Julie! The person mentioned in the letter of warning which she had torn up at Enghien!
She stopped, and recognising him for the first time, gasped:
"Ernest! You here?"
"Yes," he responded. "I told you that we should meet, and I have found you, you see. I must speak to you alone."
"Impossible," she responded. "To-morrow."