The girl remained silent. The expression upon her face showed that she resented the man’s threat. Her delicate lips compressed, and her dark eyes flashed back at him viciously. But she was a clever girl, for at that moment of her anger rising she controlled her tongue, and, instead of expressing any resentment, she only gave vent to a half-idiotic laugh, and after a pause lifted her glass again, and answered:
“Really, my dear Teddy, you are very funny to-night. Come back to earth, my dear friend!”
The man with the calico glove snapped a word in reply and ordered liqueurs, after which he took her in a taxi to a big dancing-hall out at Hammersmith, where, after a number of dances, they parted upon the kerb outside.
“Remember, Gabrielle, if you fail me in this, I’ll tell what I know. And you surely fully realise where you will be,” he said distinctly in her ear as they awaited a taxi. “I have no wish for us to be enemies. But, gad! if you hold back, then I shall treat you as an enemy, and I shall tell all I know.”
The girl drew a long breath.
“You—you———!”
But the words died upon her lips. With her woman’s innate cleverness she made resolution at that moment that she would combat the plans of the man who held her future in his hands.
She recollected all the past, and she shuddered.
Next second, however, she laughed saucily, and as the taxi drew up, she replied in French:
“Oh! my dear old friend, why make all this trouble? You are very amusing to-night! This little affair will come out all right, never fear. Now that you know Monsieur Falconer, surely the trouble is half over? The rest is so very easy. Discretion and caution are all that is necessary. And then, when the deed is done, George will slip over to Stockholm and every one will be happy—except Monsieur Falconer!”