第17章 CHAPTER IX(2)

He entered his name as Mr. Sabin - the old exile's hatred of using his title in a foreign country had become a confirmed habit with him - and mingled freely with the crowds who thronged into the restaurant at night. There were many faces which he remembered, there were a few who remembered him. He neither courted nor shunned observation. He sat at dinner-time at a retired table, and found himself watching the people with a stir of pleasure. Afterwards he went round to a famous club, of which he had once been made a life member, but towards midnight he was wearied of the dull decorum of his surroundings, and returning to the hotel, sought the restaurant once more. The stream of people coming in to supper was greater even than at dinner-time. He found a small table, and ordered some oysters. The sight of this bevy of pleasure-seekers, all apparently with multitudes of friends, might have engendered a sense of loneliness in a man of different disposition. To Mr. Sabin his isolation was a luxury. He had an uninterrupted opportunity of pursuing his favourite study.

There entered a party towards midnight, to meet whom the head-waiter himself came hurrying from the further end of the room, and whose arrival created a little buzz of interest. The woman who formed the central figure of the little group had for two years known no rival either at Court or in Society. She was the most beautiful woman in England, beautiful too with all the subtle grace of her royal descent.

There were women upon the stage whose faces might have borne comparison with hers, but there was not one who in a room would not have sunk into insignificance by her side. Her movements, her carriage were incomparable - the inherited gifts of a race of women born in palaces.

Mr. Sabin, who neither shunned nor courted observation, watched her with a grim smile which was not devoid of bitterness. Suddenly she saw him. With a little cry of wonder she came towards him with outstretched hands.

"It is marvelous," she exclaimed. "You? Really you?"

He bowed low over her hands.

"It is I, dear Helene," he answered. "A moment ago I was dreaming.

I thought that I was back once more at Versailles, and in the presence of my Queen."

She laughed softly.

"There may be no Versailles," she murmured, "but you will be a courtier to the end of your days."

"At least," he said, "believe me that my congratulations come from my heart. Your happiness is written in your face, and your husband must be the proudest man in England."

He was standing now by her side, and he held out his hand to Mr.

Sabin.

"I hope, sir," he said pleasantly, "that you bear me no ill - will."

"It would be madness," Mr. Sabin answered. "To be the most beautiful peeress in England is perhaps for Helene a happier fate than to be the first queen of a new dynasty."

"And you, uncle?" Helene said. "You are back from your exile then.

How often I have felt disposed to smile when I thought of you, of all men, in America.

"I went into exile," Mr. Sabin answered, "and I found paradise. The three years which have passed since I saw you last have been the happiest of my life."

"Lucille!" Helene exclaimed.

"Is my wife," Mr. Sabin answered.

"Delightful!" Helene murmured. "She is with you then, I hope.

Indeed, I felt sure that I saw her the other night at the opera."

"At the opera!" Mr. Sabin for a moment was silent. He would have been ashamed to confess that his heart was beating strongly, that a crowd of eager questions trembled upon his lips. He recovered himself after a moment.

"Lucille is not with me for the moment," he said in measured tones.

"I am detaining you from your guests, Helene. If you will permit me I will call upon you."

"Won't you join us?" Lord Camperdown asked courteously. "We are only a small party - the Portuguese Ambassador and his wife, the Duke of Medchester, and Stanley Phillipson."

Mr. Sabin rose at once.

"I shall be delighted," he said.

Lord Camperdown hesitated for a moment.

"I present Monsieur le Due de Souspennier, I presume?" he remarked, smiling.

Mr. Sabin bowed.

"I am Mr. Sabin," he said, "at the hotels and places where one travels. To my friends I have no longer an incognito. It is not necessary."

It was a brilliant little supper party, and Mr. Sabin contributed at least his share to the general entertainment. Before they dispersed he had to bring out his tablets to make notes of his engagements. He stood on the top of the steps above the palm-court to wish them good-bye, leaning on his stick. Helene turned back and waved her hand.

"He is unchanged," she murmured, "yet I fear that there must be trouble."

"Why? He seemed cheerful enough," her husband remarked.

She dropped her voice a little.

"Lucille is in London. She is staying at Dorset House."