>From a conversational point of view,"Lady Tresham remarked,"our guest to-night seems scarcely likely to distinguish himself."Ernestine looked over her fan across the drawing-room.
"I have never seen such an alteration in a man,"she said,"in so short a time.This morning he amazed me.He knew the right people and did the right things -carried himself too like a man who is sure of himself.To-night he is simply a booby.""Perhaps it is his evening clothes,"Lady Tresham remarked,"they take some getting used to,I believe.""This morning,"Ernestine said,"he had passed that stage altogether.
This is,I suppose,a relapse!Such a nuisance for you!"Lady Tresham rose and smiled sweetly at the man who was taking her in.
"Well,he is to be your charge,so I hope you may find him more amusing than he looks,"she answered.
It was an early dinner,to be followed by a visit to a popular theatre.A few hours ago Trent was looking forward to his evening with the keenest pleasure -now he was dazed -he could not readjust his point of view to the new conditions.He knew very well that it was his wealth,and his wealth only,which had brought him as an equal amongst these people,all,so far as education and social breeding was concerned,of so entirely a different sphere.He looked around the table.What would they say if they knew?He would be thrust out as an interloper.Opposite to him was a Peer who was even then engaged in threading the meshes of the Bankruptcy Court,what did they care for that?-not a whit!He was of their order though he was a beggar.But as regards himself,he was fully conscious of the difference.The measure of his wealth was the measure of his standing amongst them.Without it he would be thrust forth -he could make no claim to association with them.
The thought filled him with a slow,bitter anger.He sent away his soup untasted,and he could not find heart to speak to the girl who had been the will-o'-the-wisp leading him into this evil plight.
Presently she addressed him.
"Mr.Trent!"
He turned round and looked at her.
"Is it necessary for me to remind you,I wonder,"she said,"that it is usual to address a few remarks -quite as a matter of form,you know -to the woman whom you bring in to dinner?"He eyed her dispassionately.
"I am not used to ****** conversation,"he said."Is there anything in the world which I could talk about likely to interest you?"She took a salted almond from a silver dish by his side and smiled sweetly upon him."Dear me!"she said,"how fierce!Don't attempt it if you feel like that,please!What have you been doing since Isaw you last?-losing your money or your temper,or both?"He looked at her with a curiously grim smile.
"If I lost the former,"he said,"I should very soon cease to be a person of interest,or of any account at all,amongst your friends."She shrugged her shoulders.
"You do not strike one,"she remarked,"as the sort of person likely to lose a fortune on the race-course.""You are quite right,"he answered,"I think that I won money.Acouple of thousand at least.""Two thousand pounds!"She actually sighed,and lost her appetite for the oyster patty with which she had been trifling.Trent looked around the table.
"At the same time,"he continued in a lower key,"I'll make a confession to you,Miss Wendermott,I wouldn't care to make to any one else here.I've been pretty lucky as you know,made money fast -piled it up in fact.To-day,for the first time,I have come face to face with the possibility of a reverse.""Is this a new character?"she murmured."Are you becoming faint-hearted?""It is no ordinary reverse,"he said slowly."It is collapse -everything!""0-oh!"She looked at him attentively.Her own heart was beating.If he had not been engrossed by his care lest any one might over-hear their conversation,he would have been astonished at the change in her face "You are talking in enigmas surely,"she said."Nothing of that sort could possibly happen to you.They tell me that the Bekwando Land shares are priceless,and that you must make millions.""This afternoon,"he said,raising his glass to his lips and draining it,"I think that I must have dozed upon the lawn at Ascot.
I sat there for some time,back amongst the trees,and I think that I must have fallen to sleep.There was a whisper in my ears and Isaw myself stripped of everything.How was it?I forget now!Aconcession repudiated,a bank failure,a big slump -what does it matter?The money was gone,and I was simply myself again,Scarlett Trent,a labourer,penniless and of no account.""It must have been an odd sensation,"she said thoughtfully.
"I will tell you what it made me realise,"be said."I am drifting into a dangerous position.I am linking myself to a little world to whom,personally,I am as nothing and less than nothing.I am tolerated for my belongings!If by any chance I were to lose these,what would become of me?""You are a man,"she said,looking at him earnestly;"you have the nerve and wits of a man,what you have done before you might do again.""In the meantime I should be ostracised.""By a good many people,no doubt."He held his peace for a time,and ate and drank what was set before him.He was conscious that his was scarcely a dinner-table manner.
