"NIKOLA."

"You have not of course received your letter yet," I said, addressing the Don. "What do you say to the invitation?"

"I shall accept it only too willingly," he answered without delay.

"Provided, of course, you will go too."

"Have you any objection to raise, Duke?" I asked, addressing Glenbarth.

I could see that he was not very anxious to go, but under the circ.u.mstances he could not very well refuse.

"I shall be very happy," he answered.

And for once in his life he deliberately said what he knew to be untrue.

CHAPTER VII

"You surely are not going to dine with Doctor Nikola in that strange house?" said my wife, when we were alone together that night. "After what the Duke has told us, I wonder that you can be so foolish."

"My dear girl," I answered, "I don't see the force of your argument. I shan't be the first who has eaten a meal in the house in question, and I don't suppose I shall be the last. What do you think will happen to me?

Do you think that we have returned to the times of the Borgias, and that Nikola will poison us? No, I am looking forward to a very enjoyable and instructive evening."

"While we are sitting at home, wondering if the table is disappearing bodily into the vaults and taking you with it, or whether Nikola is charging the side-dishes with some of his abominable chemistry, by which you will be put to sleep for three months, or otherwise experimenting upon you in the interests of what he calls Science. I don't think it is at all kind of you to go."

"Dear girl," I answered, "are you not a little unreasonable? Knowing that de Martinos has but lately arrived in Venice, also that he is a friend of ours--for did he not meet him when in our company?--it is only natural that Nikola should desire to show him some courtesy. In spite of its decay, the Palace Revecce is an exceedingly beautiful building, and when he heard that Martinos would like to visit it, he invited him to dinner. What could be more natural? This is the nineteenth century!"

"I am sure I don't mind what century it is," she replied. "Still I adhere to what I said just now. I am sorry you are going."

"In that case I am sorry also," I answered, "but as the matter stands I fail to see how I can get out of it. I could not let the Duke and Martinos go alone, so what can I do?"

"I suppose you will have to go," she replied ruefully. "I have a presentiment, however, that trouble will result from it."

With that the subject was dropped, and it was not until the following morning, when I was smoking with Glenbarth after breakfast, that it cropped up again.

"Look here, d.i.c.k," said my companion then. "What about this dinner at Nikola's house to-night? You seemed to be very keen on going last night; are you of the same mind this morning?"

"Why not?" I answered. "My wife does not like the notion, but I am looking forward to seeing Nikola play the host. The last time I dined with him, you must remember, was in Port Said, and then the banquet could scarcely be described as a pleasant one. What is more, I am anxious to see what effect Nikola and his house will produce upon our friend the Don."

"I wish he'd get rid of him altogether," my companion replied. "I dislike the fellow more and more every time I see him."

"Why should you? He does you no harm!"

"It's not that," said Glenbarth. "My dislike to him is instinctive; just as one shudders when one looks into the face of a snake, or as one is repelled by a toad or a rat. In spite of his present apparent respectability, I should not be at all surprised to hear that at some period of his career he had committed murders innumerable."

"Nonsense, nonsense," I replied, "you must not imagine such things as that. You were jealous when you first saw him, because you thought he was going to come between you and Miss Trevor. You have never been able to overcome the feeling, and this continued dislike is the result. You must fight against it. Doubtless, when you have seen more of him, you will like him better."

"I shall never like him better than I do now," he answered, with conviction. "As they say in the plays, 'my gorge rises at him!' If you saw him in the light I do, you would not let Lady Hatteras----"

"My dear fellow," I began, rising from my chair and interrupting him, "this is theatrical and very ridiculous, and I a.s.sume the right of an old friend to tell you so. If you prefer not to go to-night, I'll make some excuse for you, but don't, for goodness' sake, go and make things unpleasant for us all while you're there."

"I have no desire to do so," he replied stiffly. "What is more, I am not going to let you go alone. Write your letter and accept for us both.

Bother Nikola and Martinos as well, I wish they were both on the other side of the world."

I thereupon wrote a note to Nikola accepting, on Glenbarth's behalf and my own, his invitation to dinner for that evening. Then I dismissed the matter from my mind for the time being. An hour or so later my wife came to me with a serious face.

"I am afraid, d.i.c.k, that there is something the matter with Gertrude,"

she said. "She has gone to her room to lie down, complaining of a very bad headache and a numbness in all her limbs. I have done what I can for her, but if she does not get better by lunch-time, I think I shall send for a doctor."

As, by lunch-time, she was no better, the services of an English doctor were called in. His report to my wife was certainly a puzzling one. He declared he could discover nothing the matter with the girl, nor anything to account for the mysterious symptoms.

"Is she usually of an excitable disposition?" he inquired, when we discussed the matter together in the drawing-room.

"Not in the least," I replied. "I should say she is what might be called a very evenly-dispositioned woman."

He asked one or two other questions and then took leave of us, promising to call again next day.

"I cannot understand it at all," said my wife when he had gone; "Gertrude seemed so well last night. Now she lies upon her bed and complains of this continued pain in her head and the numbness in all her limbs. Her hands and feet are as cold as ice, and her face is as white as a sheet of note-paper."

During the afternoon Miss Trevor determined to get up, only to be compelled to return to bed again. Her headache had left her, but the strange numbness still remained. She seemed incapable, so my wife informed me, of using her limbs. The effect upon the Duke may be better imagined than described. His face was the picture of desolation, and his anxiety was all the greater inasmuch as he was precluded from giving vent to it in speech. I am afraid that, at this period of his life, the young gentleman's temper was by no means as placid as we were accustomed to consider it. He was given to flaring up without the slightest warning, and to looking upon himself and his own little world in a light that was very far removed from cheerful. Realizing that we could do no good at home, I took him out in the afternoon, and was given to understand that I was quite without heart, because, when we had been an hour abroad, I refused to return to the hotel.

"I wonder if there is anything that Miss Trevor would like," he said, as we crossed the piazza of Saint Mark. "It could be sent up to her, you know, in your name."

"You might send her some flowers," I answered. "You could then send them from yourself."

"By Jove, that's the very thing. You do have some good ideas sometimes."

"Thank you," I said quietly. "Approbation from Sir Hubert Stanley is praise indeed."

"Bother your silly quotations!" he retorted. "Let's get back to that flower-shop."

We did so, and thereupon that reckless youth spent upon flowers what would have kept me in cigars for a month. Having paid for them and given orders that they should be sent to the Hotel Galaghetti at once, we left the shop. When we stood outside, I had to answer all sorts of questions as to whether I thought she would like them, whether it would not have been better to have chosen more of one sort than another, and whether the scent would not be too strong for a sick-room. After that he felt doubtful whether the shopkeeper would send them in time, and felt half inclined to return in order to impress this fact upon the man. Let it be counted to me for righteousness that I bore with him patiently, remembering my own feeling at a similar stage in my career. When we reached the hotel on our return, we discovered that the patient was somewhat better. She had had a short sleep, and it had refreshed her. My wife was going to sit with her during the evening, and knowing this, I felt that we might go out with clear consciences.

At a quarter to seven we retired to our rooms to dress, and at a quarter past the hour were ready to start. When we reached the hall, we found the Don awaiting us there. He was dressed with the greatest care, and presented a not unhandsome figure. He shook hands cordially with me and bowed to Glenbarth, who had made no sign of offering him his hand.

Previous to setting out, I had extorted from that young man his promise that he would behave with courtesy towards the other during the evening.

"You can't expect me to treat the fellow as a friend," he had said in reply, "but I will give you my word that I'll be civil to him--if that's what you want."

And with this a.s.surance I was perforce compelled to be content.

Having taken our places in the gondola which was waiting for us, we set off.

"I had the pleasure of seeing Doctor Nikola this morning," said Martinos, as we turned into the Rio del Consiglio. "He did me the honour of calling upon me."

I gave a start of surprise on hearing this.