Charles Rex eBook

Ethel May Dell
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 401 pages of information about Charles Rex.

Charles Rex eBook

Ethel May Dell
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 401 pages of information about Charles Rex.

Yet there was a puzzled look of pain in her eyes as she turned away, and though she wore his pearls, she made no further reference to them.

They went forth into the streets of Paris and Toby shopped.  At first she was shy, halting here and hesitating there, till Saltash, looking on, careless and debonair, made it abundantly evident that whatever she desired she was to have, and then like a child on a holiday she flung aside all indecision and became eager and animated.  So absorbed was she that she took no note of the passage of time and was horrified when at length he called her attention to the fact that it was close upon the luncheon-hour.

“And you must be so tired of it all!” she said, with compunction.

“Not in the least,” he assured her airily between puffs of his cigarette.  “It has been—­a new experience for me.”

Her eyes challenged him for a moment, and he laughed.

Mais oui, madame! I protest—­a new experience.  I feel I am doing my duty.”

“And it doesn’t bore you?” questioned Toby, with a tilt of the chin.

His look kindled a little.  “If we were on board the old Night Moth, you’d have had a cuff for that,” he remarked.

“I wish we were!” she said daringly.

He flicked his fingers.  “You’re very young, Nonette.”

She shook her head with vehemence.  “I’m not!  I’m not!  I’m only pretending.  Can’t you see?”

He laughed jestingly.  “You have never deceived me yet, ma chere,—­not once, from the moment I found you shivering in my cabin up to the present.  You couldn’t if you tried.”

Toby’s blue eyes suddenly shone with a hot light.  “So sure of that?” she said quickly.  “You read me—­so easily?”

“Like a book,” said Saltash, with an arrogance but half-assumed.

“I cheated you—­once,” she said, breathing sharply.

“And I caught you,” said Saltash.

“Only—­only because—­I meant you to,” said Toby, under her breath.

He raised his brows in momentary surprise, and in a flash she laughed and clapped her hands.  “I had you there, King Charles!  You see, you are but a man after all.”

He gave her a swift and piercing glance.  “And what are you?” he said.

Her eyes fell swiftly before his look; she made no reply.

They returned to the hotel and lunched together.  The incident of the morning seemed to be forgotten.  Jake’s name was not once mentioned between them.  Toby was full of gaiety.  The prospect of the run to Fontainebleau evidently filled her with delight.

She joined Saltash in the vestibule after the meal, clad in a light blue wrap they had purchased that morning.

He went to meet her, a quick gleam in his eyes; and a man to whom he had been talking—­a slim, foreign-looking man with black moustache and imperial—­turned sharply and gave her a hard stare.

Toby’s chin went up.  She looked exclusively at Saltash.  Her bearing at that moment was that of a princess.

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Project Gutenberg
Charles Rex from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.