"I must, I must," she ejaculated, already in movement towards the hall.
"But I have just been to get you a box of sugar plums."
He held a satin box in his hand and began to open it. But she hurried on
with a nod.
"Good-bye. Sorry, but I can't stop."
She was in the hall and out of the flat in the twinkling of an eye,
followed by Julian. Valentine remained in the drawing-room.
"Lord, I am glad to be out of it," said the lady when she had gained the
street and stood panting on the pavement.
Julian hailed a hansom and put her into it. She gazed at him as if she
was almost afraid to part from him.
"You'll--you'll come and see me again," she said, wistfully.
"Yes, I'll come," he answered.
"For God's sake, don't bring him, dearie," she said, with an upward lift
of her feathered head towards the block of mansions.
Then she drove off into the darkness.
CHAPTER IX
THE LADY OF THE FEATHERS WASHES HER FACE
It was at this point in his career that Julian, just for a time, began
keenly to observe Valentine, and to wonder if there were hidden depths in
his friend which he had never sounded. The cause of the dawning of this
consideration lay in Cuckoo's strange assertion and fear of Valentine,
primarily, but there were other reasons prompting him to an unusual
attitude of attention, although he might not at first have been able to
name them.
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