I suppressed a groan and said to myself that I must really get away from there.

Mrs. Blunt was fairly launched now.

“For all his superiority he is a man of the world and shares to a certain extent its current opinions.  He has no power over her.  She intimidates him.  He wishes he had never set eyes on her.  Once or twice this morning he looked at me as if he could find it in his heart to hate his old mother.  There is no doubt about it—­he loves her, Monsieur George.  He loves her, this poor, luckless, perfect homme du monde.”

The silence lasted for some time and then I heard a murmur:  “It’s a matter of the utmost delicacy between two beings so sensitive, so proud.  It has to be managed.”

I found myself suddenly on my feet and saying with the utmost politeness that I had to beg her permission to leave her alone as I had an engagement; but she motioned me simply to sit down—­and I sat down again.

“I told you I had a request to make,” she said.  “I have understood from Mr. Mills that you have been to the West Indies, that you have some interests there.”

I was astounded.  “Interests!  I certainly have been there,” I said, “but . . .”

She caught me up.  “Then why not go there again?  I am speaking to you frankly because . . .”

“But, Madame, I am engaged in this affair with Dona Rita, even if I had any interests elsewhere.  I won’t tell you about the importance of my work.  I didn’t suspect it but you brought the news of it to me, and so I needn’t point it out to you.”

And now we were frankly arguing with each other.

“But where will it lead you in the end?  You have all your life before you, all your plans, prospects, perhaps dreams, at any rate your own tastes and all your life-time before you.  And would you sacrifice all this to—­the Pretender?  A mere figure for the front page of illustrated papers."’

“I never think of him,” I said curtly, “but I suppose Dona Rita’s feelings, instincts, call it what you like—­or only her chivalrous fidelity to her mistakes—­”

“Dona Rita’s presence here in this town, her withdrawal from the possible complications of her life in Paris has produced an excellent effect on my son.  It simplifies infinite difficulties, I mean moral as well as material.  It’s extremely to the advantage of her dignity, of her future, and of her peace of mind.  But I am thinking, of course, mainly of my son.  He is most exacting.”

I felt extremely sick at heart.  “And so I am to drop everything and vanish,” I said, rising from my chair again.  And this time Mrs. Blunt got up, too, with a lofty and inflexible manner but she didn’t dismiss me yet.

“Yes,” she said distinctly.  “All this, my dear Monsieur George, is such an accident.  What have you got to do here?  You look to me like somebody who would find adventures wherever he went as interesting and perhaps less dangerous than this one.”