"Perfectly, ladies," I replied. "Ah, I need not ask of you such a question; your blooming cheeks and love-charming eyes sufficiently assure me of the fact."
"You monster!" cried the marchioness.
"Monster?" cried all the ladies. "Call the handsome Count Stophet a monster. Why we have been looking for him all the evening. Surely, marchioness, the case was not your own and you really could not wish to exclude the count?"
Her ladyship bit her lips with rage and her eyes flashed as though fire were in them.
"Audacious man!" she said, "how dare you intrude here? You have suborned my servants; not one of them shall remain another day with me."
"My dear marchioness," said I, "do not blame your servants, for they have not the remotest notion of my presence here. So do not blame them, my dear marchioness; and above all things, too, I beg of you not to make a scene. If you must say something angry to me, let it be elsewhere than here.
"Where, sir?"
"Oh, anywhere; upstairs will do."
The ladies tittered, and the marchioness seemed upon the point of doing something violent, beyond all precedent, but I spoke again saying, "Madam, I said that in spite of all the impediments you could possibly throw in my way I would be here tonight, and I have kept my word. Having done so, I am satisfied; and, if you wish it, I will now leave this house at once, and in that case with an equal obstinate adherence to my word, I promise you that its threshold shall never again be crossed by me."
At these words the marchioness turned rather pale. She had wanted to triumph over me, not to lose me.
"Say the word, madam, and I am gone."
"How very affecting," said all the ladies.
"You deserve that I should say go," the marchioness replied, in a low voice. "Your audacity deserves as much."
"I acknowledge it, madam."
"Then, for that acknowledgment, I will pardon you."
"How very affecting," said all the ladies again, and I made a low bow.
"Perhaps, madam," I added, "your servants had better be informed that I am no longer one of the proscribed."
"I will see it done at once!" was her reply.
It was now getting time for the rout to be over and, indeed, a number of the guests of the marchioness had already left. Determined to have a complete triumph over my petulant mistress I now approached the marchioness and announced that I had come to bid her adieu.
"Allow me to hope," I said, "that I have full pardon for the past and that all that I have done tonight may be attributed to its right motive, namely, intense admiration of yourself without the countenance and acquaintance of whom, believe me, I could not, and would not, exist in the world of fashion in London. May I hope for the happiness of seeing you soon?"
"You may hope."
"But will that delightful hope tomorrow be converted into a certainty?"
"It will."
I then bade adieu to some others of the guests with whom I was personally acquainted and who were all upon the point of leaving and then on reaching the landing, instead of walking downstairs, walked up.
No one noticed this remarkable deviation from the ordinary route upon my part, or if they did they were much too well bred to take the smallest apparent heed of it. It was no business of theirs, and in the course of another quarter of an hour the last carriage rolled away from the door of the witty, elegant, beautiful, but not very particular marchioness.
I did not stop till I had got to the top of the staircase I was ascending, that is to say upon the landing from which opened the principal bedchambers of the house, and then I paused to hear the last guest depart and to listen to the fastening up of the outer door by the servants of the establishment.
"All's right," I muttered. "I shall be much cosier here tonight than I should be at home."
All was profoundly dark in the suite of rooms in which I now found myself, and I held my hands out before me lest I should run against something, a contact with which might possibly be more energetic than pleasant.
I knew perfectly well that the bedroom of the marchioness was upon this floor and it was there that I meant to conceal myself until all the guests had left the house.
After peeping into a room or two I came to the one of which I was in search. A light was upon the dressing table and I had only just time to hide myself behind one of the curtains of the bed when I heard footsteps rapidly approaching the room.
I considered that this must be the marchioness, but I was mistaken in that conjecture as it appeared.
I had hardly been two minutes in the room when carrying a small silver hand lamp the waiting maid of the marchioness made her appearance. I knew this extremely pretty girl by sight and was in the hope that she would merely place the light upon the dressing table and then leave the room; but in that hope I was disappointed.
The very first thing she did was to begin altering the arrangement of the curtains of the bed so that I felt my discovery was a certainty. With such a coincidence I thought the best thing I could do was to step out of my place of concealment at once.
"How are you, Annette," I said, as I suddenly confronted the girl.
She gave a loud scream and dropped the hand lamp which she had in her hand; the scream was just loud enough to be heard all over the house and I felt that any further concealment in the room would be impossible.
"Why did you call out in that way?" I said.
"Why did you pop out in that way?" said Annette. "What business have you here?"
"It is not business at all," said I; "but you with your foolish squabbling have spoilt the whole affair, so off I must go. Now mind, Annette, you have seen no one."
"But-but-"
I did not wait to hear what objection the waiting maid had to keeping my secret, but I at once dashed from the room and placed myself in an obscure corner of the landing place. I was not at all disappointed as to the result of the outcry that Annette had made, for in a moment the marchioness came up the stairs. She passed me and went into the bedroom, saying, "Annette, was that you? What is the matter?"
"Oh, madam, I thought I saw-"
"What? — what?"
"A ghost, madam!"
"You silly girl. I did think that you were above such folly as that.
Really, Annette, I shall have to part with you if anything of this sort happens again."
"I am sorry, madam, but I did think at the moment, that I saw something in the room, and I screamed; but if I frightened your ladyship, I am very sorry."
"You have not frightened me, girl; but folly of any kind or description always annoys me. You can go, now; I shall not want you any more tonight."
Annette left the room, and as she passed me upon the staircase she placed her finger upon her lips to intimate, in all probability that she had said nothing of my presence in the house. I comprehended in a moment what she meant and nodded and smiled my thanks. When she had got down the staircase some distance she beckoned to me, and when I had crept softly to where she was, she said, "For Heaven's sake, come now, count! I will let you out."
"Nay, Annette, I am decidedly too late to go any where else tonight and must needs stay here."