said, extending the tips of her fingers in farewell. “We are to be the guests of some good friends of ours at 140 Grosvenor Gardens, and we know them well enough to make ourselves at home. The Senator will be over in a week or two, and he’ll be glad to thank you for your politeness.”
“I will pay my respects without fail,” Beaumanoir responded; and a minute later, after a warmer pressure of Leonie’s well-gloved hand, he stood watching their cab with its load of “saratogas” drive down the incline. By the void in his heart he knew that the girl in the coquettish toque, who had just repeated her mother’s invitation with her eyes, was all the world to him.
He turned to look after his scanty baggage with a sigh. How different it would all have been if he had chosen some other route to his Brooklyn boarding-house on the eventful night when the plausible Jevons had waylaid him! All would have been plain sailing, and he could have asked Leonie with a clear conscience to share his new-found honors and wealth. As it was he stood committed to a felonious enterprise which would fill her with contempt and loathing did she know of it; though, if he aban-
[30]
