CHAPTER IX
Jealousy.
At the door of her home Blakeney parted from Anne Mie, with all thecourtesy with which he would have bade adieu to the greatest lady in hisown land.
Anne Mie let herself into the house with her own latch-key. She closedthe heavy door noiselessly, then glided upstairs like a quaint littleghost.
But on the landing above she met Paul Deroulede.
He had just come out of his room, and was still fully dressed.
"Anne Mie!" he said, with such an obvious cry of pleasure, that theyoung girl, with beating heart, paused a moment on the top of thestairs, as if hoping to hear that cry again, feeling that indeed he wasglad to see her, had been uneasy because of her long absence.
"Have I made you anxious?" she asked at last.
"Anxious!" he exclaimed. "Little one, I have hardly lived this lasthour, since I realised that you had gone out so late as this, and allalone."
"How did you know?"
"Mademoiselle de Marny knocked at my door an hour ago. She had gone toyour room to see you, and, not finding you there, she searched the housefor you, and finally, in her anxiety, came to me. We did not dare totell my mother. I won't ask you where you have been, Anne Mie, butanother time, remember, little one, that the streets of Paris are notsafe, and that those who love you suffer deeply, when they know you tobe in peril."
"Those who love me!" murmured the girl under her breath.
"Could you not have asked me to come with you?"
"No; I wanted to be alone. The streets were quite safe, and--I wanted tospeak with Sir Percy Blakeney."
"With Blakeney?" he exclaimed in boundless astonishment. "Why, what inthe world did you want to say him?"
The girl, so unaccustomed to lying, had blurted out the truth, almostagainst her will.
"I thought he could help me, as I was much perturbed and restless."
"You went to him sooner than to me?" said Deroulede in a tone of gentlereproach, and still puzzled at this extraordinary action on the part ofthe girl, usually so shy and reserved.
"My anxiety was about you, and you would have mocked me for it."
"Indeed, I should never mock you, Anne Mie. But why should you beanxious about me?"
"Because I see you wandering blindly on the brink of a great danger, andbecause I see you confiding in those, whom you had best mistrust."
He frowned a little, and bit his lip to check the rough word that was onthe tip of his tongue.
"Is Sir Percy Blakeney one of those whom I had best mistrust?" he saidlightly.
"No," she answered curtly.
"Then, dear, there is no cause for unrest. He is the only one of myfriends whom you have not known intimately. All those who are round menow, you know that you can trust and that you can love," he addedearnestly and significantly.
He took her hand; it was trembling with obvious suppressed agitation.She knew that he had guessed what was passing in her mind, and now wasdeeply ashamed of what she had done. She had been tortured with jealousyfor the past three weeks, but at least she had suffered quite alone: onone had been allowed to touch that wound, which more often than not,excites derision rather than pity. Now, by her own actions, two men knewher secret. Both were kind and sympathetic; but Deroulede resented herimputations, and Blakeney had been unable to help her.
A wave of morbid introspection swept over her soul. She realised in amoment how petty and base had been her thoughts and how purposeless heractions. She would have given her life at this moment to eradicate fromDeroulede's mind the knowledge of her own jealousy; she hoped that atleast he had not guessed her love.
She tried to read his thoughts, but in the dark passage, only dimlylighted by the candles in Deroulede's room beyond, she could not see theexpression of his face, but the hand which held hers was warm andtender. She felt herself pitied, and blushed at the thought. With ahasty good-night she fled down the passage, and locked herself in herroom, alone with her own thoughts at last.