Weary, wan, wretched, she kept them ever in view, crossing his path now
and then, in the vain thought that she might have one word from him,
though it were a curse. He took his new friends into an alcove. She saw
the wine burst from the bottle, and heard the clink of the glasses as
they drank good health. She did not know that all his laughter was
feigned, that his happiness was delirium, that his vows were lies. She
did not believe Ralph Flare so base as to put his foot upon her, whom he
had already stricken down.
And he--he was all self, all stone!--he laid no offence at his own door.
He did not ask if her infidelity was real or if it had no warrant in his
own slight and goading. The poor, pale face went after him
reproachfully. Every painful footfall that she made was the patter of a
blood-drop. Such unnatural excitement must have some termination. He
quarrelled with a waiter. Old Bullier ordered a cuirassier to take him
to the door; he would have resisted, but Terrapin whispered: "Don't be
foolish, Flare; if you are put out it will be a triumph for the girl;"
and only this conviction kept him calm. The cyprians whom he wooed
followed him out; he turned upon them bitterly when he had crossed the
threshold, and leaping into a carriage was driven to his hotel, where
he slept unquietly till daybreak.
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