"

She dropped the extra pillow she was carrying and then nearly fell over
it. "Oh, dear heart," she murmured, and ran off to the kitchen.

I sank into bed as into a cloud and Therese reappeared very misty and
offering me something in a cup. I believe it was hot milk, and after I
drank it she took the cup and stood looking at me fixedly. I managed to
say with difficulty: "Go away," whereupon she vanished as if by magic
before the words were fairly out of my mouth. Immediately afterwards the
sunlight forced through the slats of the jalousies its diffused glow, and
Therese was there again as if by magic, saying in a distant voice: "It's
midday". . . Youth will have its rights. I had slept like a stone for
seventeen hours.

I suppose an honourable bankrupt would know such an awakening: the sense
of catastrophe, the shrinking from the necessity of beginning life again,
the faint feeling that there are misfortunes which must be paid for by a
hanging. In the course of the morning Therese informed me that the
apartment usually occupied by Mr. Blunt was vacant and added mysteriously
that she intended to keep it vacant for a time, because she had been
instructed to do so. I couldn't imagine why Blunt should wish to return
to Marseilles. She told me also that the house was empty except for
myself and the two dancing girls with their father. Those people had
been away for some time as the girls had engagements in some Italian
summer theatres, but apparently they had secured a re-engagement for the
winter and were now back. I let Therese talk because it kept my
imagination from going to work on subjects which, I had made up my mind,
were no concern of mine. But I went out early to perform an unpleasant
task. It was only proper that I should let the Carlist agent ensconced
in the Prado Villa know of the sudden ending of my activities. It would
be grave enough news for him, and I did not like to be its bearer for
reasons which were mainly personal. I resembled Dominic in so far that
I, too, disliked failure.

The Marquis of Villarel had of course gone long before. The man who was
there was another type of Carlist altogether, and his temperament was
that of a trader. He was the chief purveyor of the Legitimist armies, an
honest broker of stores, and enjoyed a great reputation for cleverness.
His important task kept him, of course, in France, but his young wife,
whose beauty and devotion to her King were well known,