Theodora was sitting rather on the outskirts of the party in the
bosquet, her two devoted admirers still on either side of her. All the
chairs were arranged informally, and hers was against the opening, so
that it proved easy for Lord Bracondale to come up behind her
unperceived.
She believed he had gone. She could not see distinctly from where she
was, but she had thought she saw the automobile whizzing by. She
recognized Mrs. Ellerwood's hat. An unconscious feeling of blankness
came over her. She grew more silent.
A lady beyond the Prince spoke to him, and at that moment Mr.
Hoggenwater rose to put down her coffee-cup, and in this second of
loneliness a deep voice said in her ear: "I could not go--I wanted to say good-night to you!"
Then Theodora experienced a new emotion; she could not have told herself
what it was, but suddenly a gladness spread through her spirit; the
moon looked more softly bright, and her sweet eyes dilated and glowed,
while that voice, gentle as a dove's, trembled a little as she said: "Lord Bracondale! Oh, you startled me!"
He drew a chair and sat down behind her.
"How shall we get rid of your Hogginheimer millionaire?" he whispered.
"I feel as if I wanted to kill every one who speaks to you to-night."
The half light, the moon, Paris, and the spring-time! Theodora spent the
next hour in a dream--a dream of bliss.
Mrs. McBride, with her all-seeing eye, perceived the turn events had
taken. She was full of enjoyment herself; she had quite--almost
quite--decided to listen to the addresses of Captain Fitzgerald,
therefore her heart, not her common-sense, was uppermost this night.
It could not hurt Theodora to have one evening of agreeable
conversation, and it would do Herryman Hoggenwater a great deal of good
to be obstacled; thus she expressed it to herself. That last success
with Princess Waldersheim had turned his empty head. So she called him
and planted him in a safe place by an American girl, who would know how
to keep him, and then turned to her own affairs again.
The Prince was a man of the world, and understood life. So Theodora and
Lord Bracondale were left in peace.
The latter soon moved his chair to a position where he could see her
face, rather behind her still, which entailed a slightly leaning over
attitude. They were beyond the radius of the lights in the bosquet.
Lord Bracondale was perfectly conversant with all moves in the game; he
knew how to talk to a woman so that she alone could feel the strength of
his devotion, while his demeanor to the world seemed the least
compromising.